Man says it’s ‘extremely possible’ his father was behind America’s only unsolved plane hijacking

On the afternoon of November 24, 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, Oregon. He paid cash for a one-way ticket to Seattle, wore a business suit, and carried a briefcase. Forty-two minutes later, he handed a note to a flight attendant claiming the case contained a bomb. “I don’t have a grudge against your airline, Miss,” he told her calmly. “I just have a grudge.” What followed remains the only unsolved skyjacking in US history. Cooper demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. When the plane landed in Seattle, the ransom was delivered and passengers were released. Cooper then ordered the crew to refuel and fly toward Mexico at low altitude. Roughly 30 minutes after take-off, at around 10,000 feet over southwest Washington,