This reading is on pages 86-87 of Focus on Grammar 5, Fifth Edition

Note: Fifty years ago, airport security was not nearly as strict as it is today. People did not have to go through any security procedures before they got on a plane. All that changed after the disastrous highjackings of three planes on September 11, 2001. Nowadays everyone goes through airport security before boarding a plane, and the following events would not be possible.

Have you ever heard of Dan Cooper? He was the central figure in a crime that happened decades ago and still hasn’t been solved. Late in November 1971, on a short flight between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, a flight attendant was handed a note by a mysterious middle-aged man dressed in a dark suit. Leaning close to her, he said, “Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.” Then he opened his briefcase so that she could see several red cylinders and a lot of wires. The man, who used the alias “Dan Cooper,” was demanding $200,000 (worth about $1,285,000 in 2020 dollars), four parachutes, and a plane to fly him to Mexico.

The plane proceeded to Seattle with none of the other passengers even aware that it was being hijacked. The passengers got off the plane, and “Cooper” got what he was demanding: $200,000, all in $20 dollars bills that had been photocopied by FBI agents so they could easily be identified. Then the plane was refueled and took off for Mexico with only Cooper and five crew members on board.

Once the flight was underway, Cooper ordered the flight attendant to go to the cockpit and stay there. As she was leaving, she noticed him trying to tie something around his waist, presumably the bags of money. Then he opened the plane’s rear stairway and jumped out of the plane. The crew felt pressure bumps that were probably caused by Cooper’s jump. The air temperature was 7° below zero. Cooper was not equipped with any survival gear and was wearing only casual shoes.

Cooper has not been seen or heard from him since that night. Who was he? Did he get away with his plan? Or was he killed trying to commit the perfect crime?

Authorities speculate that Cooper landed near Ariel, a small town near the Columbia River north of Portland. Only one real clue has been discovered. In 1980, an eight-year-old boy inadvertently dug up $5,880 of Cooper’s money near a river bank. Rotting rubber bands were found along with the money, indicating that the cash had to have been deposited there before the bands fell apart. Since then, the area has been searched thoroughly, but no trace of Cooper has been found.

What really happened? Many investigators believe that Cooper must have been killed by the combination of the weather conditions and the impact of his fall, but if so, why have none of his remains ever been discovered? Is more information known than has been revealed? Is Cooper’s body in some remote part of the wilderness area into which he jumped, or did he go on to live a luxurious life under an alias somewhere? Did he have the $5880 dollars buried by an accomplice to throw the authorities off the track? Or did he bury it himself? After all these years, one can legitimately ask why the case has never been solved.

Cooper has become a legend. His story has been told in books and articles and even in the movie The Pursuit of of D.B. Cooper. In Ariel, the hijacking is still celebrated every year. Notwithstanding the FBI’s claims that Cooper could not have survived the jump, some believe that he did. Local bar owner Donna Elliott says, "He did get away with it … so far.” Others don’t think so. Jerry Thomas, a retired soldier who has been working independently on the case, thinks that Cooper didn’t survive the fall and his body will eventually be found. “I know there’s something out there,” he says. “There has to be.”

Will this case ever get solved? Who knows? As of July 2016, when the case was closed by the FBI, none of the missing money had ever been recovered. Although the case was closed, interest in Dan Cooper has not diminished, and it remains the only unsolved air piracy case in American aviation.

Dan Cooper.png

Police sketch of Dan Cooper

Go to the Padlet and practice writing sentences. What happened to Dan Cooper? Where is he now? Use modals and/or passive voice.