How D. B. Cooper Died

What was the fate of the infamous unidentified 1971 hijacker?

💵 Did D. B. Cooper escape with his extorted loot, to live out a life of ill-gotten luxury? Or did the skyjacker end up buried beside the Columbia River like a portion of his ransom money? Or was his fate something else again? Today, let's consider some of the many ways Cooper could have died.

🥶 (I will not, however, be focusing on the more fringe theories this time. Freezing to death on the 10,000 foot parachute jump through the night air, or death by bear attack after landing may be sensational and entertaining, but there are other far more plausible and intriguing explanations for the end of the man known to the world as D. B. Cooper.)

What was skyjacker D. B. Cooper's fate?

🏴‍☠️ The unidentified air pirate may have hoped to escape scot free, perhaps pay off debts, then live large until he passed from peaceful old age. How likely is it, though, that a man who threatened people with a briefcase bomb, stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and planned to flee by jumping from a jet at 10,000 feet, would have a quiet and uneventful old age before dying peacefully in his sleep? I say very little chance.

💀 This was a man who made reckless, ruthless, dangerous, desperate choices. D. B. Cooper was clearly prepared to die that day in November '71, and he emphasized during his hijacking that he wouldn't be taken alive. With this crime, he chose a risky and potentially deadly path. Moreover, by hijacking Flight 305, Cooper committed a capital offence, which could have resulted in the death penalty if he'd been caught alive and convicted.

👮‍♂️ Cooper also could have been shot during the hijacking, like other skyjackers were; and he clearly knew this, as he was watching out for Sky Marshals. He also risked being killed later down on the ground by law enforcement as he tried to escape. Though he evaded these fates, the hijacker was a guy who took high-risk actions. I'd doubt he became a paragon of safety-consciousness decision-making after this heist.

🪂 Did D. B. Cooper die from his parachute jump? This is the most popular death theory for the hijacker. Equipment failure, failure to pull the ripcord, or a bad landing could have finished him off. So can we reasonably suppose that Cooper didn't survive his parachute escape?

A military backpack parachute of the type that hijacker D. B. Cooper may have worn for his escape from the 727 jet.

🤷‍♂️ The answer is likely not so simple. Equipment failure or a no-pull both turn out to be less plausible, according to expert consultants. Injury rather than instant death on impact seems much more likely.

✈️ For one thing, the type of military surplus parachute rig that Cooper is believed to have jumped with is considered by researchers to have been a very reliable kind, with low failure rates. These rigs were designed for emergency bail-outs, and saved the lives of thousands of troops in wartime. The hijacker also looked very confident in how to use a parachute. At least one expert witness, though, whose job involved repairing parachutes, did tell the FBI that such models of chute could be prone to tearing. Several expert witnesses told investigators that Cooper's jump was doable, though probably a rough ride, and was survivable. Some of these experts even volunteered eagerly to replicate the hijacker's jump! A panel of highly experienced parachuting experts at last year's D. B. Cooper Conference (a former smokejumper, a recreational skydiver, and a paratrooper) also all agreed that a no-pull by the hijacker was very low probability. Based on all this expert advise, I have to accept that Cooper dying on impact is improbable. What a pity! It would be so nice and simple.

💰 A rough landing, however - whether falling into water, or colliding with a tree, or hitting the ground hard - could have seriously injured and incapacitated Cooper, perhaps leading to later death. Although typically parachuting is a surprisingly safe activity, the hijacker's choice of conditions wasn't ideal. A non-steerable chute, a heavy money bag which might throw his balance off or come loose and interfere with deployment of the chute canopy, a night jump in an uncertain location, with poor visibility of the rapidly approaching ground or water.... All these elements together make Cooper's death still seem like a plausible if slight possibility; and injury at least seems a probable outcome.

🪦 Whether Cooper did die on impact, or succumbed to injuries after landing, accidental death due to the parachuting escape would have been a fitting end for the skyjacker.

🌊 Some amateur theorists have also imagined a scenario of Cooper losing the money bag in the jump, and despondently throwing himself into the Columbia River. It's certainly easy to picture Cooper as someone who held life cheap, and was desperate for that money. He must have known he could be killed that day if his heist plan failed... and losing his loot would be a massive failure. Nevertheless, I think we simply don't know enough about Cooper's situation and state of mind to suppose that he died deliberately in this way. If he did, then it's just another variant of Cooper not caring whether he lived, and thus bringing about his own end through his desperate choices.

Did Cooper meet a violent end?

🪓 Another deliberate death scenario would be Cooper landing alive, but being killed by somebody else. Whether that somebody was a treacherous accomplice, or an opportunistic local who shot him then took the cash, this dead skyjacker theory has the advantage of explaining why the authorities never found Cooper's body or gear. If the evidence was quietly bundled into the back of a car or secretly buried or burned, who'd ever know?

🤕 Such prompt and final karma for the hijacker has a certain appeal. The mother of one of Cooper's hostages expressed that she hoped the skyjacker "landed on his head"! Indeed, it might be poetic justice if Cooper was killed, whether instantly or merely swiftly, as a result of his own heist plan. Yet, even if he landed safely and survived the immediate aftermath of his jump, I can't see the hijacker living safely and comfortably ever after.

🚬 Cooper likely faced many further dangers beyond his escape from the jet heist. His criminal-mindedness and choice of high-risk crime suggest that any future crimes or legal jobs he tried might be dangerous too. Even spending his loot from his Flight 305 hijacking could have been risky, if he tried laundering the cash. This hijacker was also a man who smoked heavily, and allegedly told the flight crew he had pills that could help them stay awake, suggesting he may have been a user of illegal drugs. Not the clean living type, then. And let us remember, the hijacker was already middle aged at the time he committed his skyjacking, so no spring chicken either. In fact, a Cooper who died of lung cancer or other cardiopulmonary disease seems equally possible as one who died of misadventure.

☠️ At the end of the day, we are talking about a pirate. And I think that Cooper, like the pirates of old, did not retire rich and happy, nor die at peace with himself and the world. Whatever his exact fate - death by impact, by drowning, by severe injury, by homicide or self-destruction or drawn-out illness, or consorting with money launderers and other criminals, or by further wild and desperate actions - I see the man who called himself Dan Cooper as someone whose demise, in one way or another, was probably of his own making.

~ D. B. Cooper Investigator 😎🔍🐊