Review D.B. Cooper (1971)

[Hux]

1971.

A man gets on a plane, he tells the flight attendant that he has a bomb. He wants 200k and 4 parachutes. The plane lands, the passengers are let off and he's given the money and parachutes. The plane takes off again and he instructs them to fly no higher than 10 thousand feet, and no faster than 120 miles per hour.

The man (and the money) are never seen again.

That is until 1980, when an eight year old boy finds five grand of the damaged money.

Was this the most brilliant robbery ever or did he end up dead?

He clearly knew what've was doing (the instructions for the pilot, the area, the times) and yet of the four parachutes, he picked a reserve chute which was a training dud (would an experienced jumper do that?).

The case was officially closed in 2016.

 

[Doctor Omega]

That was fascinating.

One has to admire his cool throughout the whole proceedings. Also I wonder about only two of the four parachutes being found on the plane.
Was one of the other passengers an accomplice?

It sounds to me like he did not survive however. The fact that rolls of the money were found sounds like the bag containing his loot fell prey to the elements, which suggests that he did too. Unless he lost the bag during the jump, which means, even if he survived, his whole plan had failed.

What do you make of it all, Hux?

 

[Hux]

He seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing when it came to the cabin pressure, the speed, the height and even asking for the landing gear to remain down. He clearly understood that jumping from the plane would not be a walk in the park and planned accordingly. That stuff all makes me think he may just have pulled it off.

And then there's the parachute inconsistencies.

He requested "front and back parachutes" = novice.
He turned down instructions on how to use the parachute = experienced.
He picked the non-steerable military parachute = novice.
The military chute could better withstand the exit speed of the plane = experienced.
He put the parachute on like he knew what he was doing = experienced.
He took the reserve chute that was sewn closed and non-functional = novice.

An experienced jumper would have had NO problem surviving that jump. Maybe taking the dummy reserve chute was a bluff designed to make people think he didn't know what he was doing? Likewise, dumping five grand of the money to make people think he perished.

I kinda like the idea that he pulled it off.

Then of course there's the theory that no man called D.B Cooper ever existed and the crew invented him and took the money (always liked that idea but hugely unlikely).

 

[Doctor Omega]

dumping five grand of the money to make people think he perished

I didn't consider that. He made me think that he had perished because of the discarded money, so his reasoning still works after all these years.