The Mysterious D. B. Cooper's Hijacking The Parachute

On September 11, 2001, 19 people hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against their targets.. Two of the planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. (“9/11 attacks”2010). The conspiracy theories started just days after the September 11, 2001 attack. The conspiracies were easy to spread fast when using the internet and they became more and more elaborate as time went on. The most popular 9/11 conspiracy theory is that 9/11 was orchestrated by the American government.

Roughly 2,753 people were killed on September 11, 2001, by terrorists who overtook commercial airplanes (Jones). The cause of these thousands of deaths were a series of attacks in New York City by an Islamic terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. However, there are still many questions about what actually happened the morning of September 11, 2001. As there are many different conspiracy theories about what happened that day, 9/11 was an attack which began with Al- Qaeda hi-jacking airplanes, but ended with more questions than answers. Many questions still remain about the authenticity of cell phone calls from inside the planes, why air defense was told to “stand down,” and how three buildings imploded as the result of two buildings being struck by airplanes.

On November 27, 1971, in Portland, Oregon, a man claiming to be “Dan Cooper” bought a ticket for Northwest-Orient Airlines Flight 305 to Seattle, Washington. Dressed in a sharp dark suit with a pearl tiepin, this forty-five year-old man was about six feet tall with black hair (Abacha and Gilmore 233). No one would suspect him of going down in American history as the only man to ever escape capture after hijacking a U.S. plane (Warchol 1).

One writer summed it up best, saying "As one person told me, Cooper is the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest" (The 40-Year Mystery). D.B. Cooper is the one and only man to apparently successfully hijack an American airplane. Throughout this paper, it will be shown exactly what happened on the fateful day of Novermber 24, 1971, including why Mr. Cooper was successful. D.B. Cooper's crime is still unsolved because of three major factors: his detailed planning of the day in question, the execution of his plan, and the absurd number of people confessing to be the real D.B. Cooper. D.B. Cooper's in depth planning of his elusive feat was a crucial factor to his success on that fatheful day.

Beginning in 2001 Intelligence about the impending nature of an attack was increasing, not only from US Intelligence sources but also from 11 other countries such as Britain, Israel, India, Egypt, Morocco and even a top Taliban commander from Afghanistan (Thompson.) Beginning in August warnings become coming in from everywhere, foreign governments, CIA and FBI sources and so on however, next to none of this information was shared between the many intelligence agencies. In April, NORAD launched a training scenario in which the pentagon was to be incapacitated by a hijacked airliner however the Joint Chiefs of Staff disregarded the scenario as “too unrealistic” (September 11 attacks advance-knowledge debate.) On august 19th the Israeli’s gave US intelligence personnel credible information including, the list of 19 suspected terrorist’s names and the fact that a large aircraft would be the primary weapon involved. The names were not shared by the CIA with other intelligence agencies (Robinson.)

Preview of Main Points: Four planes were hijacked, each intended for different targets. According to the New York Times, the flights that were hijacked included AA Flight 11, UA Flight 175, AA Flight 77, and UA Flight 93. (Schmemann A1)

On September 11, 2001, four different planes were hijacked by terrorists. Two of them headed for the Twin Towers, the other headed for the Pentagon and the other nobody really knows for sure. The two that were headed for the Twin Towers, sadly made it there and crashed into both of them, they collapsed. The one headed toward the Pentagon also made it there. But the other plane didn’t make it to wherever it was supposed to be going, because of some brave passengers trying to take control of the plane and crashing it into a field, sacrificing their selves to save everyone else. (9/11 Mystery: What Was Flight 93 's Target?)

A plane, American Airlines Route 11, with 92 passengers on board, was hijacked by four Arab men with knives, led by Mohammed Atta. On the ground heard the air traffic controller them say, "Do not something stupid. There will not be put to any. We have other planes. "

In Loose Change part 2, flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. At the crash site there is no evidence of flight 93 just a little crater that shows that the plane pould of had to hit the ground at a vertical dive. Before the crash there were three out of many eyewitnesses who were talked to. Susan Mcelwain, said she saw a white plane flew over her and her van, she said it was about 40 ft. above her and she didn’t here a noise. She said it looked like a military plane, as she watched it fly behind tree’s and heard an explosion she thought it crashed, until the FBI told her there was no other plane around there, only flight 93. Then later the FBI changed there story and said it was taking pictures of the crash site. Tom Spinelli and Lee Perba said they had also

On September 11, 2001 four passenger commercial jet airliners were hijacked and as a result approximately 3,000 human lives were lost. When asked about 9/11, many can recall exactly what they were doing when they heard the news that a plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings and many Americans can tell you how it all unfolded and the reason behind such a travesty. The “official story” provided by officials, and restated by Sofia Shafquat, producer of “9/11 Mysteries: Demolitions” say that “four passenger planes were hijacked and taken radically off course, within an hour, two of the planes had flown into the enormous steel towers of the World Trade Center, creating fires and eventually toppling them” (Shafquat).

                The purpose of my study is to explore some of the different parts of D.B Cooper life, and specifically find out what happened to him after the hijacking, and his motive for committing the crime. After doing some research, I hope to answer my research question, which is what really happened to D.B Cooper, and if he is still alive, what is his true identity. The goal of my analysis, is find the best theory of who was the most likely suspect to have committed the skyjacking.

The official story of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory in that the government claims 19 hijackers conspired together to hijack four planes and create terror in the world. Four American airplanes were hijacked; two were driven into the World Trade Centers and the third airplane into the Pentagon. The fourth airplane suspected target was the White House, but it was diverted by the brave men and women aboard that hijacked airplane, and crashed the airline jet before it could reach its target. It was like time stood still as America watched through television broadcast these unbelievable and horrifying events taking place. The reports told of the smell the jet fuel, burning flesh, and people jumping out windows to their death to escape the flames.

The perceptions that precluded intelligence analysts from looking for a plot in which explosives were disguised as printer cartridges was the corollary principle. The Corollary principle is it takes more information, and more unambiguous information, to recognize an unexpected phenomenon than an expected one (Heuer, 1999). In this case, American and British intelligence did not expect an attack on the air cargo system, rather one that is aimed at the air passenger system, since this was more probable because of 9/11.

Imagine it is 1971 and you are on a flight from Portland to Seattle. You take your seat and get ready for your flight. You see an ominous man and you have your suspicions, but you think nothing of it. Later in the flight, you see him talking to the stewardess and see him slip her a note. He then shows her what is in his suitcase and asks her to sit with him. You start to get a bad feeling that something is not right. The man then seems to request something as the stewardess gets up to go to the cockpit. She appears to be anxious as she returns. After about twenty minutes your flight lands in Seattle and you have an eerie feeling that something suspicious has gone down. What you just witnessed was the infamous D.B. Cooper hijacking that forever

On June 1st, 1999 American Airlines flight 1420 experienced a tragic accident that claimed many lives and made an impact on aviation worldwide. The event and it subsequent investigation shed