On the afternoon of the 24th of November, 1971, a man carrying a black attaché case and referred to himself as “Dan Cooper” entered the Portland International Airport and bought a one-way ticket on Flight #305; Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Cooper was assigned seat 18C and ordered a drink before takeoff.
Cooper was a white male, wearing a white shirt with a dark business suit and tie. He appeared to be in his mid-40’s and was a quiet man with little accent. Boarding the plane he drew no attention to himself.
The plane, a Boeing 727 aircraft, carried 42 occupants in total. 36 passengers (including Cooper), Captain William A. Scott, First Officer William “Bill” J. Rataczak, Flight Engineer Harold E. Anderson, and three flight attendants, Alice Hancock, Tina Mucklow, and Florence Schaffner.
The Hijacking
The aircraft left Portland on schedule at 2:50 pm PST. Shortly after, around 3:00 pm, Cooper handed flight attendant Schaffner a note. At the time, men traveling alone would usually hand flight attendants notes with phone numbers or hotel room numbers written on them, so Schaffner assumed it was only a business man’s phone number. Schaffner ignored the note, quietly slipping it unopened into her purse. The next time she passed, Cooper whispered to her, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.”
The note read in neat handwriting, “Miss – I have a bomb in my briefcase and want you to sit by me.” The shocked attendant did as she was told. She then asked to see the bomb. Cooper opened his cheap case and showed a glimpse of two rows of four red sticks, which was presumed to be dynamite, all connected to a mass of wires that led to a cylindrical battery. Soon, Schaffner was walking to the captain with a new note of Cooper’s demands: $200,000 in negotiable American currency, two front parachutes, and two back parachutes, all given to him by 5:00 pm.
After reading the note, Captain Scott immediately contacted air traffic control. They then contacted the Seattle Police who contacted the FBI. The FBI urgently called the airline’s president, Donald Nyrop, who then stated to comply with the demands given by Cooper. After this, Cooper instructed the flight attendant to return the note to him, removing incriminating evidence and leaving the exact wording unknown, but everyone present agreed that the note contained the words, “no funny business”.
With Schaffner in the cockpit, Cooper moved to the window seat so that flight attendant Mucklow could sit in the isle to act as a liaison between them and the cockpit. Cooper told Mucklow to tell the captain to stay in the air until the money and parachutes were ready. He also made additional demands; when landing in Seattle, all passengers would remain onboard until Cooper had the money, then he would let them go. The plane circled Puget Sound for about 2 hours to give the FBI enough time to obtain the needed resources. While the plane was circling, Mucklow asked why Cooper was hijacking this airlines specifically. Cooper replied, “It’s not because I have a grudge against your airlines, it’s just because I have a grudge,” he stopped and said that this airlines just fulfilled his needs.
The $200,000 was received in $20 bills, with random serial numbers which complied with Cooper’s request. Every bill had a serial number starting with “L”, however, specifically planned by the FBI. Tacoma’s McChord Air Force Base offered to supply the parachutes, but Cooper rejected this offer; he wanted regular civilian parachutes, not military grade ones. Seattle Police eventually contacted a local skydiving school, and bought the two front parachutes from them. The two back parachutes were obtained from a local stunt pilot.
In the Sky Again
At 5:46 PST, the plane arrived in the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Cooper told them that only one representative was allowed to bring the money and parachutes, and the only entrance/exit would be the plane’s front door. When this played out to Coopers demands, Mucklow traveled to the front entrance to receive the supplies from Al Lee, Northwest Orient’s Seattle operations manager. The 36 passengers were then released, with Cooper keeping several crew members (flight attendants Hancock and Schaffner being an exception, as they requested to debark from the plane), and the plane took off for a set course to Mexico City.
Sometime after takeoff, Cooper asked Mucklow to lower the back aircraft stairs. Mucklow expressed her fear many times of doing this, to which Cooper replied saying he would do it himself. He instructed Mucklow to go to the cockpit and close the curtain partition between Coach and First Class. He told her to not return.
By 8:13 pm, the warning light for the aft staircase lit. Pilot William Scott asked if he needed assistance, with Cooper replying his final message anyone ever heard from him again, “No.” The plane’s tail pitch upwards, and Cooper jumped out of the aircraft with the parachutes and money, never to be seen again.
Cooper’s fate still remains a mystery to this day.
Sources: Wikipedia, FBI.gov, Crimemuseum
She initially checked into a type of hotel room where she had roommates but had to be moved because of odd behavior. We can get a grasp on what behavior they’re talking about in the security camera footage that went viral of her in the elevator taken on February 1st. If you have never seen it, the general rundown is that she walks in, presses most of the buttons to the floors, walks out of the elevator, walks back in. She then jumps in & out of the elevator, hides in the corner, slowly looks out, leaves, & starts doing hand gestures, & finally leaves the elevator for good. Mind you, during all of this, the elevator never once closed its doors or left the original floor until after she walked away from the elevator at the end. This is the last sighting of Elisa Lam alive. People were immediately worried, her family flying over to help look, her case being on the news, & police searching the hotel to the fullest extent. They even brought dogs on the roof, but they didn’t detect her scent.
18 days after the security footage the hotel starts receiving complaints from guests complaining that the water pressure is very low, tasted funny, & even discoloration of the water, some of the people’s water even being black. The hotel sent Santiago Lopez, a hotel maintenance worker, to check out the 1000 gallon tanks on the roof. There he found the lifeless body of Elisa Lam, naked with her clothes floating around with her. They were the same clothes seen on the security footage. To get on the roof you would need to enter with either a keycard or if the alarms were disarmed which only Santiago could do. After getting on the roof you would need to climb the ten-foot tanks, move the 20lbs lid, climb in, & close it again. This would be impossible since there wasn’t a ladder on the roof or any other way up there. She also could’ve gotten there from the fire escape but still couldn’t have climbed up there. The reason the dogs didn’t find her when they had searched on the roof, it’s because the lid was closed. The tanks are very tightly closed, & of course, they didn’t suspect the tanks at the time. That’s all we truly know about the case, but there are a million theories out there, some of those we will now go over.
