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The Search For D. B. Cooper — Transcript

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0:18A daring parachute escape from a flying 727 somewhere between Reno...
0:22A search was made of the plane immediately...
0:24We don't know who he was, where he came from, or where he went.
0:29I expect that we'll keep looking until we find him or find out what happened.
0:56In the afternoon of November 24, 1971,
0:59a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase walked into Portland International Airport
1:04and purchased a one-way ticket to Seattle, Washington.
1:09The man identified himself as Dan Cooper and, along with 36 other passengers and a crew of 6,
1:15he soon boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 305.
1:20Once aboard, Cooper made himself comfortable in the middle of the last row of seats
1:24on the right side of the cabin.
1:26He ordered a drink and had a smoke because this was the 70s.
1:30Once the flight was cleared for departure, Cooper turned around
1:33and handed an envelope to flight attendant Florence Schaffner.
1:37Inside the envelope was a note featuring a handwritten message stating he had a bomb.
1:43Schaffner reluctantly sat down beside him and glimpsed what appeared to be
1:47eight sticks of dynamite inside his briefcase.
1:51Cooper's demands were quite simple.
1:53He wanted $200,000 in cash and four parachutes.
1:57He also demanded a fuel truck to stand ready to refuel the aircraft once they landed in Seattle.
2:03Should they fail to comply with his demands, he threatened to "do the job."
2:08Once the flight was airborne, Schaffner went to inform the cockpit crew,
2:11while another flight attendant, by the name of Tina Mucklow, remained by Cooper's side.
2:16By using a telephone in the rear of the cabin, Mucklow acted as an intermediary
2:20between Cooper and the rest of the flight crew for the remainder of the hijacking.
2:24For the next hour and a half, Flight 305 maintained a holding pattern near Seattle
2:28while local and federal authorities scrambled to procure the ransom
2:32as well as the four parachutes.
2:3410,000 $20 bills were collected from a local bank
2:37while the owner of a nearby skydiving school supplied the chutes.
2:42At 5:45 P.M., more than two hours past its scheduled arrival,
2:46Flight 305 finally touched down in Seattle.
2:49By this point, it was well after sunset,
2:52and the aircraft was brought to a remote section of the tarmac.
2:55Once the flight came to a stop, both the ransom and the parachutes were handed over to Mucklow,
3:00who then brought them back aboard.
3:01In exchange, Cooper permitted two of the flight attendants as well as all the passengers to disembark.
3:07Many of whom had not yet realized the flight had been hijacked.
3:12With the ransom paid and only four crew members remaining onboard,
3:15Cooper told Mucklow to inform the Captain that he wanted to fly to Mexico City.
3:21They were to fly with the landing gear down, the flaps at 15 degrees, and below 10,000 feet.
3:27The lights in the cabin were to be switched off, and the aft stairway,
3:30which opens from the underbelly of the fuselage, was to remain extended.
3:36Two of Cooper's demands could not be satisfied. First of all, the flight configuration he'd requested
3:42would not allow for a non-stop flight to Mexico City.
3:45As such, Cooper proposed a refueling stop in Phoenix, Yuma, or Sacramento
3:50before they all agreed on Reno, Nevada.
3:54Second of all, it was not possible to depart with the ventral staircase extended.
3:58Cooper agreed to retract the stairs on the condition that Mucklow remained by his side
4:02and taught him how to extend them once the plane was airborne.
4:06Parked for nearly two hours due to complications with refueling,
4:09Flight 305 was back in the air by 7:36 P.M.
4:13Less than five minutes after takeoff, Cooper told Mucklow to head for the cockpit
4:17and that, from this point onwards, he was not to be disturbed.
4:20The last time she saw Cooper, he was standing in the middle of the aisle
4:24as if though he was preparing to jump.
4:27Mucklow joined the rest of the crew, locked the cockpit door behind her,
4:31and some three hours later, Flight 305 safely landed in Reno.
4:37Once the flight came to a stop, the crew carefully ventured into the rear of the cabin,
4:41but there was no sign of Cooper nor the bomb.
4:44The aft stairway had been extended mid-flight and was slightly damaged upon landing.
4:49It seemed, there was only one explanation for the hijacker's absence.
4:53At some point, between Seattle and Reno, Cooper had strapped on a parachute,
4:57walked down the stairs, and leaped into the dark of night.
5:13As soon as it became clear that Cooper was no longer on board,
5:17dozens of FBI agents converged upon the aircraft,
5:20only to discover a disappointing amount of physical evidence.
5:23A black clip-on tie...
5:26...eight cigarette butts...
5:29...and two of the four parachutes were all that Cooper left behind.
5:33Evidently, he brought the ransom and briefcase along with him.
5:37In interviews conducted on the night of the hijacking,
5:39Cooper was described by the crew and passengers as a white male with brown eyes and dark hair.
5:45He appeared to be in his mid-forties and wore a dark trench coat,
5:48a dark suit, a white shirt, a black tie, and dark shoes.
5:52Soon after boarding, he'd also donned a pair of sunglasses.
5:55Based on this description, the FBI produced the first of several composite sketches.
6:01Before they could mount a search, however, the FBI had to figure out
6:05when Cooper abandoned ship.
6:07But that was easier said than done.
6:09None of the four crew members witnessed Cooper jumping from the plane
6:12nor did the pilots of two fighter jets, which escorted the flight between Seattle and Reno.
6:17Which is not all too surprising given it was the middle of the night.
6:21Although, the flight crew did report something odd.
6:24The last communication with the hijacker occurred at approximately 8:05 P.M.
6:28when the crew used the intercom to offer assistance, which Cooper declined.
6:32Within the next 10 minutes, the crew experienced what they described
6:36as an oscillation or vibration of the aircraft.
6:39At the time, the crew suspected it might have been produced by Cooper's jump,
6:43and a subsequent recreation of the hijacking supported that conclusion.
6:47Okay, so that took care of the when, but what about the where?
6:51While Cooper was very explicit about the flight's configuration and destination,
6:55he never specified any kind of route.
6:58In fact, Cooper grew so impatient with the slow refueling in Seattle
7:01that he dismissed the Captain's request to file a flight plan and simply told him to
7:06"get the show on the road."
7:07As such, the Captain chose to fly along an airway known as Victor 23 without any input from Cooper.
7:14By using Victor 23 as a guide, authorities estimated the most probable location of the flight
7:18at the approximated time of the jump was about 40 kilometers north of Portland.
7:23And so, at the break of dawn, the FBI mounted an impressive search operation
7:27using helicopters, airplanes, and ground troops.
7:31The problem was, even if the estimated bailout point was accurate,
7:35Cooper's eventual landing- or drop zone was far more difficult to pinpoint.
7:40The loosely defined search area covered a vast stretch of mountainous wilderness occluded by a dense forest,
7:47so it was truly like finding a needle in a haystack.
7:50Apart from the difficult terrain, the search was further complicated
7:53by low temperatures and inclement weather which persisted for days.
7:58Despite their best efforts, authorities never managed to find a single trace of Cooper
8:03nor the items he'd brought along with him.
8:18Having made little to no progress by early December,
8:20the FBI turned their attention to the $200,000 ransom.
8:24The money had been collected from the Seattle-First National Bank,
8:28which maintained a ransom package of $250,000 just for such an occasion.
8:33Because of this, the serial numbers of the 10,000 $20 banknotes given to Cooper
8:38had been documented in advance.
8:40A complete list of which were quickly made available to financial institutions,
8:43government agencies, and the general public.
8:46The intention was to make it as difficult as possible for Cooper to spend his money.
8:51Northwest Airlines and several newspapers even began to offer rewards
8:54to anyone who could find a note with a matching serial number.
8:58In spite of these efforts, no one ever did.
9:01That is until nearly a decade later.
9:05In early 1980, a young boy, named Brian Ingram,
9:09was building a campfire on a small beach in southern Washington.
9:13As he was digging into the sand, Ingram discovered three bundles of cash totaling $5,880.
9:20Having heard about the infamous skyjacking,
9:22Ingram's parents brought the severely degraded bundles to the FBI.
9:26The notes were promptly inspected, and sure enough,
9:29the serial numbers matched those of the ransom.
9:35Once the excitement subsided, however,
9:37the money managed to raise far more questions than it answered.
9:40The most significant of which was how?
9:43How did the money end up so far away from the drop zone?
9:48Looking at this map, it might be tempting to think
9:51that Cooper simply dropped some of the money, which then fell into the Lewis River.
9:55The bundles could then have been carried further downstream by the Columbia River
9:59before finally being washed ashore at Tina Bar,
10:02which is the name of the beach.
10:04Tina Mucklow. Tina Bar. Coincidence!?
10:07Yeah, coincidence.
10:09Anyway, the problem with this idea is that the Columbia River
10:12flows in the opposite direction.
10:14This has lead some, including members of the FBI, to reevaluate the initial drop zone assessment.
10:21For instance, if the drop zone was much further southeast,
10:23close to a river called the Washougal River,
10:26it is conceivable, albeit improbable, that the money floated all the way down to Tina Bar.
10:32Alternatively, the bundles may have simply landed on the beach
10:35if the flight path was further to the west.
10:38Even so, natural explanations struggle to explain how three independent,
10:43potentially free-falling and/or free-floating, bundles of cash
10:47ended up at the exact same place on the same beach.
10:51To complicate matters, sediment from the riverbed was excavated and dumped onto Tina Bar
10:56as part of a dredging operation in 1974.
10:59And, according to one analysis, the money was discovered above this layer of sediment.
11:04If true, that would mean the money came to rest at Tina Bar sometime after 1974.
11:09But a reexamination of that analysis found that what was believed to be a layer of deposited sediment
11:15might actually have been a perfectly natural layer of clay.
11:18Not only that, but the sediment was clearly dumped
11:20some distance away from where the money was discovered.
11:23Furthermore, when Ingram discovered the bundles,
11:25the rubber bands which held them together were still intact.
11:29This is significant because experiments conducted in 2009
11:33revealed that this brand of rubber bands could not withstand exposure
11:36to open-air or water for more than a year.
11:40So unless the bundles where somehow protected from the elements,
11:43they must have become buried at Tina Bar within a year of the hijacking.
11:47The most probable explanation, therefore, seems to be that Cooper or someone else
11:53deliberately buried the money.
11:55Did Cooper survive and bury the money himself?
11:58Did someone else bury the money after stumbling upon Cooper's remains?
12:02If there is an explanation which does not require human intervention,
12:06it's managed to elude investigators for decades.
12:09Suffice it to say this is a mystery within a mystery.
12:14Since Ingram's discovery in 1980, both Tina Bar and the grounds around the Washougal River
12:19have been subjected to numerous searches.
12:21But, to date, there's been no sign of Cooper nor the rest of the money.
12:39From the very beginning, it was assumed by many that Cooper did not survive his daring escape.
12:44It would not make for a very thrilling conclusion to this story,
12:48but that's the thing about stories, they're usually far more exciting than reality.
12:53While there is no hard evidence for nor against Cooper's survival,
12:57the assumption that he fell to his death is not without merit.
13:01When Cooper leaped into the darkness, Flight 305 was plowing through a frigid rainstorm
13:05at roughly 170 knots, 10,000 feet above southern Washington.
13:10The wind was so violent that it ripped out a placard from the aft stairway,
13:14which was later recovered in 1978 almost directly below the estimated flight path.
13:19To say that Cooper was not dressed for the occasion would be an understatement.
13:24The ground beneath him, meanwhile, was obscured by multiple layers of clouds,
13:28which likely means that Cooper jumped without knowing his precise location.
13:33Even if he could see the ground and had a specific drop zone in mind,
13:36the parachute he selected was non-steerable.
13:39Meaning, he would not have been able to steer his descent towards a specific landing spot.
13:44Thus, precluding any potential coordination with an accomplice stationed on the ground.
13:49While Cooper expressed some familiarity with parachutes,
13:53his actual competence level is up for debate.
13:56It's widely believed that Cooper demanded two pairs of parachutes,
13:59two primary and two reserves,
14:01to make the authorities believe that he intended to take a hostage.
14:04That is precisely what happened as the FBI contemplated but eventually decided against
14:09sabotaging the chutes as they did not want to risk the life of an innocent civilian.
14:13But in their haste to obtain them, they unintentionally provided Cooper
14:16with a nonfunctional dummy-chute intended for training purposes.
14:20This mishap seems to have gone unnoticed by Cooper because that dummy-chute
14:25was one of the two missing from the plane.
14:27Not only that, but Cooper chose the older and technically inferior parachute
14:32out of the two primary chutes provided.
14:34So, in both cases, it seems like Cooper made the worst possible choice.
14:40But there are other ways to interpret this information.
14:44For instance, it's possible that Cooper used the dummy-chute, not as a reserve,
14:48but as a means to secure the bag of money.
14:50In fact, that is precisely what Cooper tried to do with the functional reserve chute.
14:54First, he tried to place the money in the chute's canopy
14:57before removing some of the suspension lines and wrapped them around the bag.
15:01Perhaps he used the dummy-chute for a similar purpose?
15:04And Cooper's decision to use the older primary chute is not necessarily an indication of inexperience.
15:09It could also be a sign of familiarity because the chute he left behind was a civilian luxury chute
15:15while the one he used was a military chute.
15:18The argument is that Cooper might have been trained as, say, a paratrooper,
15:22and chose the older military chute because that's the one with which he was most familiar.
15:27And there is at least one other reason to suspect that Cooper had a military background.
15:32While the flight was in a holding pattern near Seattle, Cooper mentioned that the McChord Air Force base
15:37was only 20 minutes away from the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
15:40At the time, that was an accurate assessment and might suggest a military background.
15:46Apart from the potential military connections,
15:48Cooper may even have had links to the Central Intelligence Agency.
15:51You see, the type of aircraft which Cooper chose to hijack,
15:54a Boeing 727,
15:56was also used by the CIA to covertly drop agents and supplies during the Vietnam War.
16:02A task for which the Boeing 727 was uniquely qualified due to its distinctive aft stairway.
16:08So it's fairly safe to assume that Cooper chose to hijack a Boeing 727
16:12specifically because it provided a relatively safe means of escape.
16:15Whether he learned of this from the CIA or came to that conclusion independently is another question.
16:22However, the fact that Cooper chose to hijack a flight operated by Northwest Airlines
16:26was apparently random chance.
16:29When Tina Mucklow asked Cooper about his motives, he responded:
16:32"It's not because I have a grudge towards your airline, it's just because I have a grudge."
16:37He further clarified that Flight 305 happened to be in the right place at the right time.
16:43Even so, it's clear that Cooper came prepared.
16:47He seemed to know a great deal about aircraft and aviation.
16:50He appeared to be familiar with the local terrain.
16:52He maintained a low profile to avoid a panic.
16:55He covered his eyes with a pair of glasses to conceal his identity.
16:58He left very little evidence behind.
17:00And he demanded four parachutes to force the assumption that he was taking a hostage.
17:05He was even cunning enough to reclaim the note which he'd initially given to Florence Schaffner.
17:10Apart from the name he wrote on his plane ticket,
17:13there are no other samples of Cooper's handwriting.
17:17But for all his planning and cunning,
17:19it seems Cooper did not give enough thought to his eventual escape.
17:23Not only did he fail to specify a route, but he was forced to make a last-minute destination change
17:28from Mexico City to Reno.
17:30He could have demanded more appropriate parachuting equipment like a pair of boots, a helmet, or jumpsuit.
17:36He could even have specified the ransom to be delivered in larger denominations
17:39to make it lighter and less cumbersome to carry.
17:42Presuming he did survive the fall and made it safely to the ground,
17:46he may then have had to make his way through a dense, partially snow-covered forest
17:50in nothing but loafers and a trench coat in late November.
17:54I get the distinct impression that Cooper's escape was much more of a leap of faith
17:59than a carefully executed jump.
18:02On the other hand, authorities never received a missing persons report
18:06matching the description of Cooper in the wake of the hijacking.
18:09This might suggest that he did survive
18:13and that he swiftly and quietly resumed his normal routine.
18:17Furthermore, other hijackers have performed similar stunts,
18:20and many of them did survive, even if they were quickly apprehended.
18:24Finally, the simplest explanation for how three bundles of cash ended up at Tina Bar
18:29is human intervention.
18:31At the end of the day, most of this is based on nothing but supposition.
18:35Without any concrete evidence of Cooper's demise,
18:38it leaves the door wide open to the far more exciting proposition
18:42that he did, in fact, survive.
18:52By the time the press got wind of the hijacking,
18:55the FBI had already begun to investigate a few potential suspects.
18:59Among them was a man in Portland with the initials D. B. and surname Cooper.
19:04This Cooper was quickly eliminated as a suspect but, due to a mixup by the press,
19:08the name Dan Cooper was confused for D. B. Cooper, and the rest is history.
19:13While Dan Cooper is most likely a pseudonym, there is a comic book series of the same name.
19:19The comic is written in French and centers around a Canadian pilot named Dan Cooper.
19:24While the comic was not translated into English nor sold in the United States before 1971,
19:29it was available in Canada, which has a large French-speaking population.
19:34Given that American and Canadian accents can be difficult to distinguish,
19:38it's possible that Cooper, who was described as having no discernible accent,
19:43was a bilingual Canadian.
19:45This might even be supported by something that Cooper might have said.
19:49You see, when the Captain relayed Cooper's demands to Air Traffic Control,
19:53he used the phrase "negotiable American currency".
19:56It seems doubtful that an American citizen would specify "American currency",
20:01so perhaps Cooper was not American.
20:04The problem is, we don't know if this is a direct quote from Cooper
20:08or paraphrasing by the Captain.
20:11For instance, notes taken by the crew during the hijacking
20:14merely contain the phrase "negotiable currency".
20:17While testimonies provided by the crew after the hijacking
20:20include phrases like "$200,000 in cash" and "circulated US currency".
20:26So Cooper might have been Canadian, and he might have taken his name from the Dan Cooper comics,
20:31just as he might have been American, and might have taken his name from something or someone else.
20:37Nearly half a century has gone by since the hijacking took place, and, in that time,
20:42thousands of suspects have been questioned and investigated.
20:46It would obviously be impossible to cover all of them here, but
20:49let's take a look at some of the people that, at some point or another,
20:52have been suspected of being D. B. Cooper.
21:00Robert Rackstraw first became a suspect in 1978, and, on the surface, he seems like a solid candidate.
21:06He was a decorated Army paratrooper and helicopter pilot.
21:10He had experience with explosives.
21:12He had an extensive criminal record.
21:14He had an uncle named John Cooper, who was an avid skydiver.
21:19He was expelled from the Army only months before the hijacking,
21:22which might suggest a motive.
21:24After all, the hijacker did say he had a grudge.
21:27When confronted by journalists and private investigators,
21:30Rackstraw would neither confirm nor outright deny that he was D. B. Cooper.
21:35Instead, he'd say things like "I could have been" or "I would not discount myself."
21:40On the other hand, Rackstraw had light-colored eyes, which Cooper did not.
21:45More significantly, Rackstraw was only 28 years of age at the time of the hijacking.
21:50This is well outside the range of ages reported by the crew and passengers.
21:54Most of whom believed Cooper was in his mid-forties.
22:01Kenneth Christiansen first became a suspect in 2003
22:05when his brother noticed certain parallels between him and Cooper.
22:09Christiansen had briefly served as a paratrooper in World War II and, since 1953,
22:14he'd worked for Northwest Airlines as both a mechanic and a flight attendant.
22:18He was 45 years old at the time of the hijacking.
22:21He was left-handed, which Cooper might have been.
22:23For instance, Cooper used his left hand to interact with his briefcase,
22:27and the clip-on tie he left onboard was affixed with a tie clasp applied from the left.
22:32Shortly before he died in 1994, Christiansen had supposedly told his brother:
22:36"There is something you should know, but I cannot tell you."
22:40After his passing, his family discovered over $200,000 in his bank accounts.
22:45To top it all off, Florence Schaffner stated that photographs of Christiansen
22:49bore a strong resemblance to Cooper.
22:53On the other hand, Christiansen did not match the physical description of Cooper.
22:57He was both shorter and lighter.
23:00While Schaffner did see a strong resemblance,
23:02she remarked that Cooper had more hair, and that is supported by the composite sketches.
23:08And there was nothing suspicious about the large sums of money
23:11which he'd simply earned by selling land.
23:16Richard McCoy first became a suspect in 1972
23:20when he hijacked a Boeing 727 and escaped via the aft stairway, much like D. B. Cooper.
23:26Because of the significant overlap between the two hijackings,
23:29some believe they must have been committed by the same person.
23:32McCoy used a fake name.
23:34He used a fake hand-grenade to threaten the crew.
23:36He used handwritten notes to issue his demands.
23:39Both McCoy and Cooper used the phrase "no funny stuff"
23:42as a warning to the crew.
23:44McCoy demanded $500,000 in cash and four parachutes.
23:49McCoy also bailed out the back of the plane
23:51once they passed over his hometown in the state of Utah.
23:54Apart from the similar modus operandi,
23:56McCoy had also served in the Vietnam War as a demolition expert and a helicopter pilot.
24:01McCoy did actually survive the fall and managed to evade authorities for
24:05two full days before he was apprehended and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
24:10Before his death in 1974, McCoy refused to confirm or deny that he was D. B. Cooper.
24:15On the other hand, McCoy was an avid recreational skydiver
24:19and even came prepared with a skydiving helmet and jumpsuit.
24:23He gave very specific instructions about the flight path.
24:26In addition to the fake hand-grenade,
24:28McCoy also used an unloaded handgun to threaten the crew.
24:31He failed to retrieve one of the notes he'd given to a flight attendant.
24:35He was only 29 years of age at the time of the hijacking.
24:38And all three flight attendants were quite certain that McCoy was not Cooper.
24:43While there are meaningful parallels between these two cases,
24:47McCoy might simply have been a copycat who'd read about D. B. Cooper in the news.
24:54Duane Weber first became a suspect in 1995 when, shortly before his death,
24:59he supposedly told his wife:
25:01"I've got a secret to tell you. I am Dan Cooper."
25:04Following his deathbed confession, Weber's widow recalled a number of fascinating details.
25:09She claims to have found a bank bag resembling the one used in the hijacking.
25:12She claims Weber had sustained a knee injury after jumping out of a plane.
25:16Weber supposedly had a nightmare about leaving his fingerprints on the aft stairs.
25:21And a year before the money was discovered at Tina Bar,
25:24Weber had allegedly paid a quick visit to the same location.
25:27In addition, Weber was a World War II veteran.
25:30He had an extensive criminal record.
25:32He matched the physical description.
25:34And he was 47 years old in 1971.
25:38On the other hand, Weber's fingerprints
25:40did not match any of the prints collected from Flight 305.
25:44Although, to be fair, there's no way to know if any of those prints actually belong to Cooper.
25:49Furthermore, Weber's DNA did not match a DNA sample collected from the tie clasp.
25:54But, once again, there's no way to know if the DNA on the tie clasp
25:57actually came from the hijacker and not someone else.
26:01What's so frustrating is that the FBI likely had a much better source of DNA at one point.
26:06If you recall, eight cigarette butts were collected from the scene,
26:09and there's a good chance they were all suffused with Cooper's DNA.
26:13The problem is, that evidence was lost at some point and has not turned up since.
26:22William Smith first became a suspect in 2018.
26:26Smith served in the Navy during World War II and likely had some experience with parachuting.
26:31He was 43 years old at the time of the hijacking.
26:34He had dark brown eyes.
26:36He matched the physical description.
26:38He shared a certain likeness with the composite sketches,
26:40especially this speculative sketch of an older D. B. Cooper.
26:44A student named Ira Daniel Cooper, who was killed in World War II,
26:48attended the same high school as Smith.
26:50Smith worked as a yardmaster for a railroad company for most of his life,
26:54but in 1970 the company filed for bankruptcy.
26:58As a consequence, Smith lost his pension, which might suggest a motive.
27:02He could, for instance, have developed a grudge towards the airline industry
27:06for their role in bringing about the downfall of the rail transportation industry.
27:10It's further speculated that Smith could have used his knowledge of railroad networks to
27:14hop on a train and escape undetected.
27:17On the other hand, Smith spent his entire life in the northeastern United States.
27:22Given that the hijacking occurred on the other side of the country
27:26and was committed by someone who, at least, appeared to be familiar with the local terrain,
27:30Smith is not the most ideal candidate.
27:34However, the fact that Smith worked as a yardmaster is interesting.
27:38You see, the tie that Cooper left behind was recently examined using an electron microscope
27:43which uncovered various metallic particles.
27:45Some of these particles, especially pure titanium, were quite rare in 1971.
27:51This might suggest that Cooper worked as a manager at some sort of chemical or metallurgical facility,
27:58or possibly a rail yard.
28:06If nothing else, I hope that this limited selection of suspects
28:10illustrates just how difficult it is to be certain when you have so little evidence to work with.
28:16These five individuals look nothing alike, yet any one of them could be D. B. Cooper.
28:22Was Cooper really in his mid-forties or did he simply look old for his age?
28:27Did Cooper really serve in the military?
28:29Which one of these sketches most closely resemble Cooper?
28:33In 2016, the FBI had to admit defeat and officially closed down the case.
28:38Unless someone stumbles upon Cooper's remains or manages to track down the rest of the money,
28:43it seems there is little hope of resolution.
28:46Did Cooper survive?
28:48I have no idea.
28:50But as long as that possibility can not be dismissed,
28:53the legend of D. B. Cooper will no doubt persist.

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