Drink

DB Cooper Cocktail

On Thanksgiving Eve, November 24th, 1971, a smartly dressed man with a black briefcase and black wrap-around sunglasses arrived at Portland International Airport and booked a one-way flight to Seattle Washington, under the name of Dan Cooper on Flight 305 with Northwest Orient Airlines. In the sensationalism that followed the flight, his name became DB Cooper in the press.

Cooper sat in seat 18E, the middle seat of the back row and ordered the drink described here – a bourbon with lime and lemonade. When a flight attendant came down to Cooper, he handed her a note. Believing it to be a flirtatious advance, the flight attendant put it in her pocket, before Cooper said in her ear:

“Miss, you’d better look at that note. I have a bomb.”

Upon reading the note, which stated what was said prior as well as a request to sit next to him. She sat next to him, whereupon he opened the briefcase, showing the bomb.

He made a request to the captain to have $200,000 in $20 bills in a knapsack by 5pm, as well as two front parachutes and two back parachutes. What was usually a 30 minute flight came out to about 2 hours, as the plane circled Seattle-Tacoma International Airport while banks scrambled to find the money required.

All 36 passengers on the plane were calm, not knowing what was going on, including Cooper, who cabin smoked and ordered another one of these cocktails. Eventually, the plane landed; Cooper received the cash and parachute and began negotiating with the pilot about where to go next. He requested a landing in Mexico City, but the pilot said he only had enough fuel for Reno, Nevada. Cooper agreed, and the plane took off. Around about halfway through the flight, somewhere north of Portland, Cooper tied the knapsack around his waist, took two parachutes with him, opened the aft stairway at the back of the plane and leapt into the night.

In the investigation that followed, around $5,000 of Cooper’s money washed up on a beach near where he jumped, but that was one of the few leads law enforcement found. Cooper was never seen or heard from again.

*Northwest Orient Boeing 727, similar to that used for Flight 305*

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