A man buys a $20 plane ticket with cash. Thirty minutes later, the flight crew is handing him parachutes and $200,000 cash. Then… he disappears. No gun. No struggle. Just a calm voice, a rear stairway, and a case that has haunted the FBI ever since. 

This week, we take you inside the unraveling of one of the boldest escapes in aviation history.

Sources Used

• FBI Case Files and Archived Reports on the Cooper Investigation
• Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray
• D.B. Cooper: The Real McCoy by Bernie Rhodes and Russell Calame
• FBI.gov Official 2016 Closure Statement
• Witness interviews including Tina Mucklow and Bill Mitchell (passenger)
• Flight logs and aircraft records of N467US (Boeing 727-100)
• Tom Colbert’s investigative team and the decoded letters