FBI No Longer Actively Investigating D.B. Cooper Case
SEATTLE (AP) — The FBI says it's no longer actively investigating the unsolved mystery of 1970s plane hijacker D.B. Cooper.
The bureau announced Tuesday that it's "exhaustively reviewed all credible leads" during its 45-year investigation and has redirected those resources to other priorities.
The FBI has investigated since a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 over the Northwest on Nov. 24, 1971. When the flight landed in Seattle, Cooper exchanged the flight's 36 passengers for the money and parachutes. Cooper kept several crewmembers, and the plane took off again, ordered to set a course for Mexico City.
Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, a little after 8:00 p.m., he jumped out of the back of the plane wearing a business suit, a parachute and the $200,000 in ransom money. The pilots landed safely, but Cooper had disappeared into the night and his ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day.
No sign of Cooper has emerged, though bundles of his cash, matched by serial numbers, were found in 1980.
The FBI says it has conducted searches, collected all available evidence and interviewed all identified witnesses. It says it's chased an immense number of tips but none have resulted in identifying the hijacker.
© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
