A parachute potentially linked to the DB Cooper highjacking incident has piqued the FBI’s interest. Cooper, who boarded the Northwest Orient flight in 1971 told a flight attendant that he had a bomb. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes in exchange for freeing the 36 passengers. Once the exchange happened in Seattle, Cooper ordered the flight crew to take off to Mexico City. En route, he jumped from the plane with a parachute. However, his body was never found.
Decades later, the family of a man suspected to be Cooper handed over a parachute that is suspected of being the one that Cooper used during the heist to the FBI. The man is Richard Flord McCoy II, whose children Chanté and Rick believe that their father was the infamous DB Cooper. Meanwhile, former pilot, skydiver, and YouTube creator Dan Gryder documented his findings in a two-part series on his channel detailing the FBI’s efforts to uncover Cooper’s identity.
DB Cooper Hijacking Update: New Evidence May Finally Solve Mystery
After the FBI learned of DB Cooper’s hijacking and escape, they devoted years to uncovering his identity. They had their eyes on Richard Flord McCoy II, who organized a similar heist and hijack five months after the DB Cooper incident. However, they ruled him out from their suspect list over not matching witness descriptions. The FBI eventually closed the case in 2016 after an exhaustive search.
YouTuber Dan Gryder, who has been investigating the case for over two decades, shared his findings in a two-part series on his channel Probable Cause: Dan Gryder in 2021-22. He told the Cowboy State Daily about uncovering the military surplus bailout rig that he believes was used by DB Cooper. The rig belonged to McCoy and was stored in his mother’s storage space.
Although he had contacted them earlier, the siblings waited for their mother’s death before getting in touch with him. The FBI, for their part, reached out to Gryder after taking a look at his two-part series. This marked the agency’s first attempt to re-investigate the case after eight years.
On November 19, Dan Gryder released a new video on his YouTube channel titled “D.B. Cooper: Deep FBI Update.” He clarified that the agency has all the evidence they gathered since last year. Cowboy State Daily reported that Gryder and Rick met with FBI agents in 2023 who took the parachute as evidence. They also took in a skydiving logbook that Chanté found that coincided with both hijackings.
