In 1971, a man known as DB Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight, demanded $200,000 and four parachutes, then jumped from the plane over Washington state and vanished. The case remains unsolved, but a new theory suggests the hijacker may have been inspired by a Franco-Belgian comic book series.
The name 'Dan Cooper' used by the hijacker matches the protagonist of 'Les Aventures de Dan Cooper', a comic featuring a Canadian air force test pilot who parachutes and delivers ransoms. Podcast host Darren Schaefer notes the similarity, questioning whether it is a coincidence or a clue.
Schaefer, who runs 'The Cooper Vortex' podcast, has been drawn into the mystery for years. He compares it to a book missing its first and last chapters, as Cooper only existed for about five hours during the hijacking.
The FBI closed the active investigation in 2016, but amateur sleuths continue to explore leads. The only physical evidence recovered was a clip-on tie and about $5,800 of the ransom money, found on a riverbank in 1980.
