Two Queens True Crime

On November 24th 1971 a man calling himself Dan Cooper paid cash for a one way ticket on Flight 305, a short thirty minute journey north to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Around ten minutes into the flight, just after 3pm, Mr Cooper handed a note to Florence Schaffner, one of the six crew members aboard. At first presuming that this was just another lonely businessman handing over his phone number, Florence left the folded piece of paper unopened. However, Mr Cooper then leant forward and whispered to her ‘Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb’.

Sidenote; The ‘B’ in D.B Cooper was actually mistakenly added on by the press during the initial investigation. During the early stages many real Dan Cooper’s were interviewed and one had a middle name that began with ‘B’.

The words ‘Miss – I have a bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me‘ were printed in neat capital letters. Shocked and terrified, but trying not to raise any suspicion or panic amongst the other thirty-seven passengers on board, Florence took a seat next to Mr Cooper and handed back the note. Once she was seated, he opened his briefcase to reveal two rows of four red cylinders, which the flight attendant presumed to be dynamite, wires and a large cylindrical shaped battery. 

After closing the briefcase, Mr Cooper told Florence his demands and she wrote a new note, this time to be taken to the cockpit. The pilot, Captain William Scott, upon reading the note, told Florence to remain locked in the cockpit for the rest of the journey and take notes on events as they unfolded. He then contacted Northwest Fight Operations in Minnesota to inform them of the hijacking and relay Mr Cooper’s demands. 

‘[Cooper] requests $200,000 in a knapsack by 5.00pm. He wants two front parachutes, two back parachutes. He wants the money in negotiable American currency’

The other passengers were told there was a minor mechanical problem which would delay their arrival and flight attendant Tina Mucklow took Florence’s place next to Mr Cooper to act as a liaison between the hijacker and the cockpit. 

In compliance with Mr Cooper’s demands, at 5.46pm Flight 305 landed at Seattle-Tacoma on a partially lit runway and away from the main terminal. Tina then exited the plane through the front door and retrieved the ransom money. Once she was back on board Mr Cooper allowed the other passengers to disembark. It took the flight attendant (Tina) three more trips outside of the plane to collect the parachutes, whilst she was doing this another attendant asked him if they could also leave. Mr Cooper’s reply was ‘whatever you girls would like‘.

At 7.40pm, after the plane was refuelled, it took off once more; this time carrying only Cooper, Tina Mucklow, Captain Scott, First Officer Rataczak and Flight Engineer Harold E Anderson (Florence Schaffner had left with the other attendants). Unknown to the hijacker two F-106 fighters and a Lockheed T-33 trainer were following Flight 305 out of Mr Cooper’s view. 

After takeoff Mr Cooper instructed Tina to lower the aft staircase, the flight attendant voiced her fears of being sucked out of the plane and asked if she could retrieve an emergency rope from the cockpit. He refused, stating he didn’t want her going up front. She then asked if he would fashion her a safety line from one of the parachutes cords. Eventually Mr Cooper stated that he would operate the staircase himself and ordered Tina to go to the cockpit and not return. Before she left, the flight attendant begged that he take the bomb with him, to which Mr Cooper replied that he would either disarm it or jump with it. 

Around 8.00pm a warning light flashed on in the cockpit indicating that the aft staircase had been activated. Using the cabin intercom Captain Scott asked Mr Cooper if he needed any assistance to which he received a one word reply, ‘no’. Shortly after this the crew’s ears popped, signalling that the aft door had been opened and at approximately 8.13pm the plane’s tail section pitched upwards. 

Not knowing wether he was still on board or not Tina used the intercom to communicate that they would be landing soon and the staircase would need to be pulled up in order to do this safely. Receiving no reply she continued to repeat this message for the rest of the flight. At 11.02pm, with the aft staircase still deployed, Flight 305 landed safely at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. After Captain Scott searched the aircraft he confirmed to the waiting FBI agents, state troopers and Reno police that their hijacker was no longer on board. Thirty minutes later an FBI bomb squad declared the cabin safe. 

No one would ever hear from Dan Cooper again; some speculate that he died trying to perform the tricky jump. A theory in some way supported by the 1980 discovery of some of the ransom money in the Columbia River. Despite the FBI obtaining a DNA sample from his discarded tie, the man was never identified and they effectively closed the investigation in 2016, announcing they would no longer be allocating active resources to the case. 

The hijacking of Flight 305, along with several copycats in the following months, would at least bring about changes in airport security and even modifications to the aircrafts themselves. In 1972 a spring loaded device, nicknamed the ‘Cooper Vane’, was fitted to all Boeing 727’s which prevented the aft staircase from being able to be lowered during flight.  

Case Update; A man named Eric Ulis, who has appeared on History’s Greatest Mysteries, Expedition Unknown and D.B. Cooper, Where Are You?!, believes that the tie holds the key to confirming Cooper’s identity. Eric even has a specific person in mind, but he needs what physical evidence is left to confirm his suspicions. At the time of writing he remains unsuccessful in his fight against the FBI for the release of D.B. Cooper’s tie.