Child finds $5,800 from D.B. Cooper hijacking by Columbia River in 1980
A child discovered bundles of cash from the 1971 plane hijacking beside the Columbia River, nine years after a man parachuted into the night with $200,000.
A child found $5,800 beside the Columbia River in 1980. The money came from a plane hijacking that remains one of America's most famous unsolved mysteries.
The 1971 hijacking
On November 24, 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland. He handed a flight attendant a note claiming a bomb and demanded four parachutes and $200,000.
After passengers left in Seattle, he ordered the crew south. Somewhere over Washington, he opened the rear stairs and jumped into darkness with the ransom.
The investigation
The public called him D.B. Cooper, but his identity was never confirmed. The FBI searched for decades, comparing fingerprints, cigarette butts, and hundreds of tips.
No confirmed suspect emerged, and the Bureau closed its investigation in 2016. The hijacker vanished into a storm.
The discovery
The ransom surfaced beside the river nine years after the jump, but how it reached the river remains unknown.
