Know D.B. Cooper, the man who hijacked a plane got away scot-free

New Delhi: This is the story of D.B. Cooper — one of the few people to hijack a plane and get away scot free.DB Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 and parachuted with $200,000. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, he was never found. D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. He was carrying a black briefcase and bought a $20 one-way ticket on Flight 305 to Seattle, Washington. It was a 30 minute journey.Upon boarding the Boeing 727-100, the passenger dressed in a dark suit and loafers sat in seat 18C at the back of the passenger cabin.Witnesses say he was in his mid-forties, of average height and wore a black raincoat over his freshly pressed business suit. The flight with 36 passengers on board took off on schedule at 2.50pm.Cooper, who has still never been identified, passed a note to a flight attendant. Assuming he was just another smooth gentleman hitting on her, she slipped the note straight into her coin purse.The neat, handwritten note instructed the air hostess to sit next to him and follow his instructions. He flashed the bomb, inside his briefcase, for the attendant to see and then made his demands.The pilot was informed of the demands and Northwest Orient's president, Donald Nyrop, approved the payment of ransom to Cooper in exchange for the safety of all passengers on board.The crew was ordered to co-operate and passengers were informed a slight technical issue would delay their landing. By 5.24pm his demands were met and the aircraft landed 15 minutes later in Seattle — two hours after its scheduled landing time. The pilot was told to take the jet to an inconspicuous part of the tarmac and turn off the lights so as to not attract police snipers.After the backpack with cash and parachutes were delivered, and while the plane was being refuelled, all passengers and cabin crew were asked to leave the aircraft. The flight deck crew remained and Cooper advised them of his plan — they had to fly toward Mexico City at the minimum airspeed, at an altitude of 10,000 feet and the cabin had to remain unpressurised.Somewhere over the lower Cascade mountains in Washington, Cooper, wearing a parachute and with the ransom cash strapped to his body, stepped out of the plane.The FBI have always maintained Cooper didn't survive his risky jump, but have kept an open case file. The only thing that has ever been found is a portion of the stolen money — three packets of cash, which totalled $5800, were discovered on the Columbia river in 1980 — and his cheap, black clip-on tie.Despite many false leads, Cooper has never been seen again.This remains the only unsolved case in the US aviation history.