The parachute used by the hijacker known as DB Cooper to jump from a Boeing plane with $200,000 cash after taking the passengers and crew hostage more than 50 years ago may have been found.

Sunday marked the 53rd anniversary of the only unsolved hijacking in American aviation history. Now, years after the FBI declared the case inactive, the agency may take a different, informal look at evidence that recently came to light, Cowboy State Daily in Wyoming reports. The evidence is a parachute found in an outbuilding on the family property of Richard McCoy II, whose children had long suspected their father was Cooper, they told the newspaper.

The modest-looking man who would become known as DB Cooper purchased a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Airlines from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle on November 24, 1971, under the name Dan Cooper. Just after the plane became airborne, Cooper handed a flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb, then showed a briefcase full of crossed wires and other items. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills, which were handed to him upon landing in Seattle. The 36 passengers were released in exchange and Cooper demanded that the plane, along with several crew members, take off again, bound for Mexico City.

But just after 8 p.m., Cooper jumped from the back of the plane with a parachute and the ransom and disappeared into the night between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. Years later, three bundles of notes from the heist washed up along the banks of the Columbia River. After a years-long investigation yielded clues but no definitive answers, the FBI closed the case in 2016.

McCoy, who is known to have pulled off a nearly identical heist over Utah five months later, has long been on the FBI’s short list. He was arrested for this, escaped from prison and was eventually killed during a shootout by the police.

The mystery has tantalized many over the years, resulting in books, documentaries and even a conference. Gryder, an aviation-obsessed YouTuber and a retired pilot and skydiver, has documented his quest on his YouTube channel.

McCoy’s adult children, Chanté and Richard “Rick” McCoy III, contacted him after the death of their mother, Karen, in 2020. They had been reluctant to do so because they suspected she was complicit.

The FBI did not immediately respond to the Daily News’ inquiry Monday.

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