Planes, Passengers, and Parachutes

Planes, Passengers, and Parachutes

Have you ever been home alone and hear a noise and instantly think someone else is in the house with you? Someone who could be robbing your house or waiting around the corner to grab you and slice your jugular. What’s even scarier to think about is that these scenarios have actually happened. Some of these people are even still out roaming the earth. Through carefully articulated plans, scheming partners, and a devious will, some thieves manage to break the tight chains of the law.

As the saying goes, there’s more to someone than meets the eye. One day, an “average” man walked into the Northwest Airlines building. He called himself Dan Cooper. Once on the plane, he sat in the farthest seat back and casually lit a cigarette. A flight attendant came by, and he ordered a bourbon and soda. He passed her a note that said, “I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. You are being hijacked.” The flight attendant remained seated by him. He requested $200,000 in cash and two front parachutes with two back parachutes. The fate of the plane and passengers’ lives rested in the hands of this unsuspecting girl. (Crilly) (Zlotnick)

As the flight went on, tension only increased. The flight attendant gave the instructions to the captain. He landed the plane at Tacoma International Airport and refueled it. The plane took off again, carrying Cooper’s $200,000 and four parachutes. Cooper had told the captain to head towards Mexico City and keep the plane’s altitude under 10,000 feet. This would help him with his cunning escape. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Cooper took the money, tied it to himself, secured the parachutes, and leapt from the plane’s back seal into stormy weather. No one ever seen or heard from him again. This was the only successful hijacking in American aviation history. (Crilly) (Zlotnick)

Through almost fifty years of investigation, a man has linked Dan Cooper to being Richard Lepsy. Ross Richardson wrote a book titled Still Missing. In it, he states that the skyjacker left behind a tie with a tie clasp, which was the exact same tie that all Glen’s Market employees had to wear. Richard Lepsy wore this tie every day to work, along with his favorite pair of loafers which were also left behind on the plane. Richard Lepsy’s daughter, Lisa, says that her dad went missing from work and that his car was found a few days later by an airport. Two years later when news reporters were covering the story, a sketch of Dan Cooper appeared, and Lisa and her three siblings all looked at each other and exclaimed, “That’s dad!” The case seemed to get even more difficult now because Cooper had a family back home. (Zlotnick)

Throughout the past forty-five years, people have tried to put together what happened to Dan Cooper. Some say he died instantly after jumping from the plane. However, no bones or any physical evidence have been found that could point to this conclusion. There have been countless conclusions as to who Dan Cooper really was or what had happened to him after the hijack. In 1980, a boy found some rotting twenty dollar bills along the Columbia River whose serial numbers matched that of the ransom money that Cooper had received. Without evidence or DNA proven tests, the world may never know who Dan Cooper really was.