There’s a new twist in the decades-old D.B. Cooper mystery

The FBI may be one step closer to answering the only unsolved air piracy case in US history: the D.B. Cooper hijacking.

Background: D.B. Cooper is the pseudonym of an unidentified man who, using a bomb threat, hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft above US airspace in 1971, taking everyone on board hostage.

• After the plane was grounded in Seattle and the 36 passengers exchanged for $200,000 and four parachutes, Cooper had the plane’s crew take off again for Mexico – then jumped out shortly after takeoff.
• The FBI unsuccessfully probed the incident for decades, before declaring their investigation inactive in 2016.

But new evidence has potentially emerged. In 2023, the FBI reportedly requested a meeting with Dan Gryder, a retired pilot/skydiver who believes he uncovered evidence identifying Cooper.

Gryder handed the FBI a recently discovered parachute rig belonging to Richard McCoy II, an ex-Green Beret who was convicted of a near-identical plane hijacking five months after D.B. Cooper.

• Gryder says the parachute rig is “literally one in a billion” due to unique modifications – which appear to perfectly match one of the parachutes Cooper was provided.
• FBI agents later searched McCoy’s property after receiving the parachute, per Gryder and evidence reviewed by Cowboy State Daily.

🤔 The real McCoy? Much like D.B. Cooper’s plane, not everyone is on board. Some former officials who worked the case say McCoy wasn’t Cooper, pointing to several reasons including the 10 witnesses who said the hijacker didn’t look like McCoy.