After 45 years of investigation, the FBI announced the closure of the Dan Cooper plane hijacking case – a famous mystery in the history of American aviation.

In major cities in the Pacific Northwest such as Portland, Seattle…, many restaurants and cafes have opened with the name Cooper and sell souvenirs to tourists. Not many tourists know that this name was inspired by the world-famous robber Dan Cooper, in the hijacking case ranked among the robberies of the century in America.

The incident began on Thanksgiving evening, November 24, 1971 at Portland International Airport, Oregon, USA. A male passenger carrying a black briefcase, wearing a suit, went to the ticket counter of Northwest Orient Airlines, claiming to be Dan Cooper, according to CNN.

Dan Cooper’s portrait was redrawn based on the description of a witness. Photo: CNN.

According to witnesses, he was a man in his 40s, about 1.8 meters tall, and bought a one-way ticket on Flight 305, from Portland to Seattle.

The flight took off at 2:50 p.m. (local time) with 37 passengers. A few minutes after the Boeing 727 took off, Cooper handed the flight attendant sitting closest to him, Florence Schaffner, a folded piece of paper.

When the young flight attendant did not open her message, Cooper leaned toward her and whispered: “You should look at the paper. I have a bomb.”

Flight attendant Tina Mucklow (right) recalled that Cooper was a polite man, not rude or cruel. Photo: Corbis.

The note read: “I have a bomb in my briefcase, which will detonate when necessary. I want you to sit next to me. The plane has been hijacked.” Schaffner did as the letter asked, sitting next to the terrorist. Cooper also made his demands clear: $200,000 (about $1.2 million in today’s money), four parachutes, a fuel tanker waiting at the Seattle airport to refuel the plane and then continue on to Mexico City. Cooper’s requests were quickly conveyed by Schaffner to the captain.