[The content of this article is based on authoritative historical data, and there are citations at the end of the article, please be aware.] 】
Preamble:
In the first season of the classic American drama "Prison Break", there is an old man who helped the protagonist Mike escape, he used his life to cover the escape of the protagonist group from Fox River Prison, and at the moment before the end of his life, he also told the protagonist group about his hijacking and extortion of money, which promoted the promotion of the plot later.
The historical prototype of this old man is the most successful hijacker in American history - D.B. Cooper, known as the "gentleman thief".
In 1971, Cooper hijacked American Airlines Flight 305, and after a series of dazzling operations, he successfully escaped by parachuting after extorting $200,000, and it was not until he died of natural causes in the 90s that the police basically confirmed his true identity through the tie he left behind that year.
One. Gentleman thief
Back on the day of the incident, Thanksgiving Day on November 24, "he looked like a company employee," Florence, a flight attendant on Flight 305 at the time, recalled: "Wearing sunglasses, a decent black suit, brown rhinoceros leather shoes, and a very elegant demeanor, who would have thought that he was actually a hijacker." ”
The crew members of the day also accurately described his appearance: "He is a middle-aged man in his forties, of medium to thin height, it is clear that he is conscious, and he is very fluent in language communication, and he is definitely not a madman." The most important description of Cooper in the confession was: "This man was very skilled in aviation knowledge. ”
Of course, the reason why the plane was hijacked was also due to the fact that the aviation inspection was very simple, otherwise it would not have been possible to find the bomb that Cooper had hidden in the document bag, although it was later found that the bomb was only a model, because Cooper had no intention of dying with the crew.
However, until the 911 incident 30 years later, the aviation inspection of the United States did not improve much..... to get back to the point, Cooper greeted the flight attendants very politely after boarding, and also received a service from Florence, tasting cigarettes and wine, he handed Florence a note and $20 for tobacco and alcohol.
"The cigarette and the whiskey were only worth two dollars, and he gave me a tip for the remaining eighteen dollars," Florence recalled, "and he handed me a folded note, very gently.....
The young and beautiful flight attendant thought that this was another boy who wanted to soak herself, so she politely accepted the note and put it in her pocket...... Cooper saw that this was not the right procedure, so he took off his sunglasses and politely whispered to the flight attendant that it was best to look at the note, because the plane had been hijacked by him.....
Florence thought he was joking, but with Coubauer's grim look in his smile, she opened the note, which read, "Quiet, there's a bomb in the packet, sit down." ”
The young stewardess was still conflicted, she sat down and immediately asked to see the bomb, but Cooper did not stop her, gently opening the packet, revealing the red explosive tube inside, and the detonating device, etc.
Immediately, Florence, who understood the seriousness of the situation, whispered to Cooper about Cooper's intentions, and the gentleman thief immediately issued his conditions: "The plane will go to Seattle according to the original route, let the ground personnel prepare $200,000 before landing, fill the plane with fuel after landing, and prepare two sets of parachutes for me, and now take me to the captain, thank you." ”
Throughout, passengers on board didn't know that the Boeing 727 they were flying in had been hijacked, and they only complained about being two hours late.
Two. So that the police are helpless
Cooper and the crew stayed in the cab until the plane arrived at its destination, the apron of several games was already covered with FBI, and there were snipers lurking on the towers and other commanding heights, waiting for Cooper to shoot him when he came out to withdraw the money. However, the cunning Cooper never left the captain's side, and even asked the captain to open the porthole of the cab, revealing a bomb and detonator strapped to him.
As for the money, it was handed over to the flight attendant Florence, who struggled to drag a backpack of cash and two sets of parachuting equipment onto the plane with the upper and lower ladders of the Boeing 727 airliner. Under Cooper's guidance, the refueled plane flew to Mexico City, the capital of neighboring countries, and before taking off, he released more than 30 passengers on board, as well as all the flight attendants.
In addition, considering that the hijackers may have to escape by parachuting, and it is estimated that they will have to jump with a crew member, the FBI did not dare to do anything with the parachute. The police apparently overthought it, because Cooper had no intention of taking hostages, let alone blowing up the plane and destroying the body, and he carefully planned a "show" that disappeared.
The captain recalled: "Cooper had very professional aviation knowledge, and he required us to control the altitude of the aircraft below 3,000 meters, and the speed was strictly controlled around the stall level." The Boeing 727 has good low-speed performance, and can maintain a low speed of 279 km/h without falling, of course, in order to parachute alive.
If it is other large passenger aircraft, the minimum speed must be maintained at more than 350 kilometers per hour, even if there is a parachute, this speed will lose its life in an instantaneous loss of pressure and low temperature, which is also an important reason why the police later locked it as a former air force paratrooper, because only paratroopers will choose a speed of less than 300 kilometers per hour and an altitude of 3,000 meters when they are airborne.
In addition to speed, the altitude is also a reflection of Cooper's professionalism, too high is easy to miss the landing site, too low can be opened in time to fall to death. As for why he extorted $200,000, it was all 20 yuan a piece, and the FBI analyzed it afterwards that it is very likely that this bag of money was used as a "counterweight" to stabilize the landing process.
The police found that the weight of the banknote was about the same as the total weight of the American paratroopers in World War II, and it is likely that Cooper chose this amount after accurate calculations.
In addition, he carried two parachute bags back and forth when he parachuted, and the empty weight when he jumped was almost the same as that of a paratrooper, and you must know that the American paratroopers in World War II also carried two sets of parachutes on their backs, all of which provided the police with a direction for future investigations.
But the gentleman thief retreated.....
Three. The golden cicada sheds its shell
Originally, the crew thought that Cooper would flee after crossing the border to the skies over Mexico, but they didn't expect to slip away as soon as they flew to the southwest border of Washington state.
"He also said goodbye to us very politely." The crew recalled: "After inquiring about the direction of the plane, he dismantled the bomb hanging on the captain's body, and said, gentlemen, keep the current course and speed, we have a good cooperation." With that, he took the bomb and locked the driver's door.
Immediately, the captain received a call from Cooper from the passenger compartment, telling the crew not to try to break through the cockpit door no matter what happened, because he had planted a bomb on the door, which would explode as long as it was pushed open, and someone would come to dismantle it after landing, and one thing, no matter what happened, don't deal with the accident in the passenger compartment, he would not let the plane crash.
The crew drove in fear, and at about 7:15 p.m., they suddenly heard a "clang" in the passenger compartment, and the whole tremor was accompanied by a short period of loss of pressure, and the captain rushed to grab the phone and shouted: "Mr. Cooper, what happened, do you need our help?" ”
There was silence for a long time, and they didn't know that at this time, Cooper had already jumped and disappeared into the towering spruce forest below, and he had jumped from the tail ladder, and before jumping, he had pressed the button to close the ladder, so the plane was only briefly depressurized and then returned to normal.
After the plane landed in Mexico City, a large number of police officers rushed to search, except for dozens of cigarette butts, a black tie, an empty umbrella bag and a boarding license scattered in the cabin, there was hardly a trace of Cooper, not even a fingerprint was left..... of course, D.B Cooper was also a fake name.
In addition to the serial number of the banknotes, officials only obtained two portraits provided by Florence, and the police had called on the public to actively report the banknotes, but the elegant thief quickly became a "national icon" in the United States, and everyone praised him as the "Robin Hood" of the day, so finding him was like finding a needle in a haystack.
The only official conclusion was that, as mentioned earlier, it was determined that the Cooper was most likely a veteran, and his skills in low-altitude parachuting were confirmed by officers of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.
But even so, Cooper disappeared, and although DNA was extracted from the tie at the time, it was not possible to confirm whether it was the one Cooper was wearing when he hijacked the plane, which was useless in the 70s, when there was no DNA comparison system.
Since then, this old brother has become the most successful hijacker in the history of American aviation, until around the time of 911, the events finally took a turn.
Four. The tie conclusively confirms its identity
In August of that year, a group of children who were in a "Boy Scout" summer camp found a tattered parachute in a campground on the edge of the forest in southwest Washington State, and a tote bag was dug out of the dirt pit under the umbrella, and the bag contained dozens of rotten and charred 20 dollar bills.
And most of the photos of Cooper wearing that black tie!
After the local police arrived at the scene, they confirmed that this was the umbrella and ransom used by Cooper back then, but they didn't expect it to appear here, because according to the police's estimates, even if Cooper successfully parachuted at that time, he would have fled in three directions, east, west and south, so a large number of police searches were arranged, who would have thought that he actually went north and took the most difficult route back to Washington State.
It wasn't until 2008 that a woman called the FBI and told the police that her uncle was probably D.B. Cooper, because her uncle served in the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, and that his uncle had spoken to his father and told him that he was the hijacker back then.
After DNA comparison of family members, it was basically confirmed that the lady's uncle was D.B Cooper, but helplessly, this old brother died of illness as early as 1995, and he still could not be brought to justice.
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Resources:
【Tianjin News】2011-08-06 Telegraph [In 1971, American D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 airliner and parachuted out after receiving a ransom of $200,000]