BONNY LAKE, Wash. - The legend of D.B Cooper, who some say was the only person to ever successfully hijack a plane and escape with the cash ransom, has just grown once again.

The FBI maintains that Cooper did not survive his plunge from a jetliner over Washington in 1971. They say that the discovery of some of the ransom money years after the hijacking helps their case.

But a Minnesota man now says that his brother was the infamous hijacker after seeing a TV show about Cooper, and he has a convincing story.

Cooper's plunge from an airliner with $200,000 in cash has inspired songs, books, movies and conspiracy theories aplenty. And, locals say, his body has never been found.

Now, Lyle Christiansen, 77, has come forward to say that his brother, Kenneth Christiansen, is the famous hijacker.

He says he was flipping through the channels on TV one night when he came across a show about the famous hijacking that showed a sketch of the hijacker. Christiansen said he knew instantly it was his brother, "Kenny."

And he had some unusual evidence to back up his claim.

Lyle says his brother Kenny was a trained Army paratrooper with the skills needed to survive a jump in harsh conditions, and he had the knowledge of how to survive in the Washington wilderness where Cooper is thought to have floated to the ground.

Comparison images of an older Kenneth Christiansen and a high-quality sketch of Cooper show an obvious similarity.

He says his brother settled in quiet Bonnny Lake, Washington, where he bought a home for $14,000 a year after the famous incident. Lyle says he doesn't think his brother could have afforded that kind of expense on his salary at Northwest Airlines.

There's no word yet on if he paid cash for the home. Now, the building houses a sign shop in Bonny Lake.

Lyle says that when Kenny was near death, he told him he had a secret.

"He said on his deathbed, called me over and told me there's something you should know but I cannot tell you," Lyle said. "I didn't wanna know anything bad about him so I said 'whatever it is, we still love you.'"

Lyle Christiansen says he's 100 percent sure his brother was D.B. Cooper, but there are still plenty of skeptics.

When asked about the found money linked to Cooper, Lynn Rattenbury, who now owns the home, had no clear explanation. "That's the question!" she said. "As far as I knew it's never been spent. There's a chance it could be buried around here somewhere, you never know."
    
The mayor of Bonny Lake says if the story is true, he will turn Kenneth Christiansen's home, who may have been D.B. Cooper, into a historical landmark.