controllers in Reno want to know if the hijacker has jumped from the plane.
Tina uses the intercom phone again.
“Sir?”
The screech of the dangling aftstairs against the runway in Reno sounds like a car crash. Police cars trail the jet to ensure the hijacker does not roll out onto the tarmac. The Northwest pilots are talking with Reno Approach.
“See any sparks coming off the tail at any time on touchdown?”
“Negative. None at all. The only thing that’s visible on the tail is lights on your ramp.”
“Roger.”
“I do see some sparks now, just a few, trailing you as you’re taxiing in.”
The plane rolls to a stop.
Scotty turns and unlocks the cockpit door. He calls out into the cabin.
“Sir?”
Tina is behind him. She calls out over his shoulder.
“Sir?” she says. “Do you want us to refuel?”
Scotty inches into first class. The seats are empty. He creeps forward into the cabin. He is facing the first-class curtain. He unhinges the clasp. He pulls the curtain back.
“Sir?”
The so-called Bing Crosby sketch was the first composed by the FBI.
The Bing Crosby sketch with sunglasses.
Another FBI sketch. Notice the differences?
What an aged Cooper would look like now, according to the FBI.
Private eye Skipp Porteous and Cooper suspect Kenneth Christiansen. Notice Christiansen’s smirky grin.
Northwest Orient Flight 305, hijacked shortly after leaving Portland en route to Seattle. The model was equipped with aftstairs for loading passengers. The CIA also used the aftstairs of the 727 to drop cargo and parachutists during Vietnam.
Stewardess Tina Mucklow. She spent nearly five hours with Cooper. “He was never cruel or nasty in any way,” she said after the hijacking. She later became a nun. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Row 18. The hijacker sat in the middle seat.
The aftstairs of Northwest 305, which Cooper leaped from at 10,000 feet.
Suspect Bobby Dayton. COURTESY OF RON AND PAT FORMAN
Suspect Barbara Dayton, post-surgery. COURTESY OF RON AND PAT FORMAN
Army soldiers search for Cooper near Lake Merwin in the spring of 1972.
Cooper suspect Duane Weber, photographed by his wife Jo Weber in 1979, after they married. COURTESY OF JO WEBER
After digging into her husband’s past, Jo Weber discovered that Duane was a career criminal who spent much of his life in prison, often under the alias John C. Collins.
A military parachutist tests the air-stairs of the hijacked Northwest Orient Boeing 727 during a test flight to see where Cooper landed on January 6, 1972.
Designed for the CIA, the SR-71 was the most advanced spyplane of its era. Its cameras and sensors failed to locate the hijacker. THE NORM TAYLOR COLLECTION/THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT
McCoy later escaped from federal prison with a gun made from dental plaster.
Former Green Beret Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. was a suspect in the Cooper case after he hijacked another 727 five months after Cooper’s jump, for $500,000. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Special Agent Ralph Himmelsbach quizzes Dwayne and Patricia Ingram after they claimed their son Brian found the Cooper bills on Tena Bar, the most significant development in the unsolved case. MAX GUTIERREZ © BETTMANN/CORBIS
Brian Ingram, age fourteen, after winning back a portion of the Cooper bills in a six-year legal war with the FBI. MICHAEL LLOYD, THE OREGONIAN
FBI agent Larry Carr went undercover in a cyber forum under the code name Ckret; he was later reassigned. ANDY ROGERS, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Scientist Tom Kaye tests the buoyancy of money in the Columbia River at Tena Bar, where the Cooper bills were found. RANDY L. RASMUSSEN/THE OREGONIAN
Vietnam veteran and retired drill sergeant Jerald Thomas has been hunting for Cooper for more than twenty years; recent theories suggest he might be looking in the wrong place. MARK HARRISON/SEATTLE TIMES
The mystery of the hijacker’s alias, Dan Cooper, may finally have been solved—as the name of an old French comic book hero who
Tina uses the intercom phone again.
“Sir?”
The screech of the dangling aftstairs against the runway in Reno sounds like a car crash. Police cars trail the jet to ensure the hijacker does not roll out onto the tarmac. The Northwest pilots are talking with Reno Approach.
“See any sparks coming off the tail at any time on touchdown?”
“Negative. None at all. The only thing that’s visible on the tail is lights on your ramp.”
“Roger.”
“I do see some sparks now, just a few, trailing you as you’re taxiing in.”
The plane rolls to a stop.
Scotty turns and unlocks the cockpit door. He calls out into the cabin.
“Sir?”
Tina is behind him. She calls out over his shoulder.
“Sir?” she says. “Do you want us to refuel?”
Scotty inches into first class. The seats are empty. He creeps forward into the cabin. He is facing the first-class curtain. He unhinges the clasp. He pulls the curtain back.
“Sir?”
The so-called Bing Crosby sketch was the first composed by the FBI.
The Bing Crosby sketch with sunglasses.
Another FBI sketch. Notice the differences?
What an aged Cooper would look like now, according to the FBI.
Private eye Skipp Porteous and Cooper suspect Kenneth Christiansen. Notice Christiansen’s smirky grin.
Northwest Orient Flight 305, hijacked shortly after leaving Portland en route to Seattle. The model was equipped with aftstairs for loading passengers. The CIA also used the aftstairs of the 727 to drop cargo and parachutists during Vietnam.
Stewardess Tina Mucklow. She spent nearly five hours with Cooper. “He was never cruel or nasty in any way,” she said after the hijacking. She later became a nun. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Row 18. The hijacker sat in the middle seat.
The aftstairs of Northwest 305, which Cooper leaped from at 10,000 feet.
Suspect Bobby Dayton. COURTESY OF RON AND PAT FORMAN
Suspect Barbara Dayton, post-surgery. COURTESY OF RON AND PAT FORMAN
Army soldiers search for Cooper near Lake Merwin in the spring of 1972.
Cooper suspect Duane Weber, photographed by his wife Jo Weber in 1979, after they married. COURTESY OF JO WEBER
After digging into her husband’s past, Jo Weber discovered that Duane was a career criminal who spent much of his life in prison, often under the alias John C. Collins.
A military parachutist tests the air-stairs of the hijacked Northwest Orient Boeing 727 during a test flight to see where Cooper landed on January 6, 1972.
Designed for the CIA, the SR-71 was the most advanced spyplane of its era. Its cameras and sensors failed to locate the hijacker. THE NORM TAYLOR COLLECTION/THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT
McCoy later escaped from federal prison with a gun made from dental plaster.
Former Green Beret Richard Floyd McCoy Jr. was a suspect in the Cooper case after he hijacked another 727 five months after Cooper’s jump, for $500,000. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Special Agent Ralph Himmelsbach quizzes Dwayne and Patricia Ingram after they claimed their son Brian found the Cooper bills on Tena Bar, the most significant development in the unsolved case. MAX GUTIERREZ © BETTMANN/CORBIS
Brian Ingram, age fourteen, after winning back a portion of the Cooper bills in a six-year legal war with the FBI. MICHAEL LLOYD, THE OREGONIAN
FBI agent Larry Carr went undercover in a cyber forum under the code name Ckret; he was later reassigned. ANDY ROGERS, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Scientist Tom Kaye tests the buoyancy of money in the Columbia River at Tena Bar, where the Cooper bills were found. RANDY L. RASMUSSEN/THE OREGONIAN
Vietnam veteran and retired drill sergeant Jerald Thomas has been hunting for Cooper for more than twenty years; recent theories suggest he might be looking in the wrong place. MARK HARRISON/SEATTLE TIMES
The mystery of the hijacker’s alias, Dan Cooper, may finally have been solved—as the name of an old French comic book hero who
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