Washington history museum plans DB Cooper exhibit
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) - The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma plans to open an exhibit in August of next year on the D.B. Cooper skyjacking mystery.
State Historical Society Director Jennifer Kilmer told The Daily News it's part of an emphasis on more contemporary events.
A man identifying himself as Dan Cooper hijacked a Portland to Seattle flight in November 1971. He picked up $200,000 in ransom money in Seattle and took off for Mexico, then parachuted somewhere over southwest Washington.
The skyjacking remains unsolved, but some of the marked $20 bills he was given were found in 1980 along the Columbia River.
The exhibit will include some of the money. It also will illustrate features of an old Boeing 727 that have been changed in modern planes to prevent skyjackings.
The design changes simply prevented the âairstairsâ (folding staircases built into the aircraft as opposed to separate ones that roll up to the plane) from deploying in flight. The spring lo
aded clip that prevents the airstairs from deploying in flight is actually called a âCooper Vaneâ. Despite its introduction, most 727âs had there airstairs welded shut after the Cooper hijacking.
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Another kind of interesting fact is that the same aircraft that Cooper hijacked was later used in the Top Secret Air Force F-117 program to shuttle workers between the Nellis Air Force Base end the Tonopah Test Range.