On this day in 1971 – DB Cooper hijacks plane bound for Seattle and disappears

54 years ago today, an unidentified man known as D. B. Cooper carried out one of the most famous hijackings in aviation history. Boarding a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle under the name Dan Cooper, he calmly informed the crew that he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes.

After the plane landed in Seattle, Cooper released the passengers in exchange for the ransom, then ordered the crew to take off again and fly south at low altitude with the rear staircase lowered. Somewhere over the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, he parachuted into the night — still wearing a business suit and tie — and vanished without a trace.