THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

In November 1971, a passenger plane took off from Portland airport for a short flight to nearby Seattle. However, it was hijacked by a man who claimed to have a bomb in his suitcase. He quietly demanded $200,000 in ransom money. The plane landed, his unsuspecting fellow passengers disembarked, the cash was handed over, the flight took off again, and then DB Cooper parachuted out, at night and in bad weather, over difficult Oregon terrain. No trace of him was ever found. It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in US history.

Nicholson/Guardian

Known to the public as D.B. Cooper due to a reporter’s transcription error, the mysterious skyjacker was celebrated in both art and commerce.  A twenty-nine-year-old Seattle waiter made a small fortune selling T-shirts depicting a suitcase full of money attached to a parachute; a Portland lounge singer scored a minor hit with “D.B.Cooper, Where Are You?,” which featured the admiring couplet ‘D.B. Cooper never hurt no one / But he sure did blow some minds.”

Koerner/Skies