History channel series explores D.B. Cooper mystery

Just when you think TV must have maxed out on reality shows claiming to investigate the case of the skyjacker known as D.B. Cooper, along comes “The Final Hunt for D.B. Cooper.” The first episode of a new true-crime series, “History’s Greatest Mysteries,” the two-hour “final hunt” follows Eric Ulis, an Arizonan whose website describes him as “one of the world’s leading D.B. Cooper experts.”

What is known about the case, the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history, is clearly tantalizing enough to feed the appetites of amateur and self-appointed sleuths. The FBI may have stopped actively investigating the case in 2016, but the digging goes on, thanks to a seemingly endless amount of TV shows, books, podcasts and more, offering theories about possible suspects, and narratives explaining how the mysterious skyjacker might have gotten away with his crime.

The facts are these, as the FBI page about the case lays out. On Nov. 24, 1971, a man who called himself Dan Cooper purchased a ticket at the counter of Northwest Orient Airlines in Portland. The man, who wore a business suit, white shirt and a black tie, boarded a flight heading to Seattle. Once on board, the man handed a flight attendant a note claiming that he had a bomb hidden in his briefcase. The man demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills.

The plane landed in Seattle, where passengers were allowed to leave the aircraft, and Cooper took possession of the $200,000 and the parachutes. With a skeleton crew, the plane then again took off, on a supposed flight path to Mexico City.

But instead of remaining on board, the hijacker parachuted out of the plane, with the money, and landed somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Investigators don’t know the man’s real name — he was called D.B. Cooper because of a miscommunication, and that moniker is the one that became notorious — why he committed the crime, or what happened to him.

The unanswered questions surrounding Cooper and this sensational case have generated endless speculation, including another upcoming entry, “The Mystery of D.B. Cooper,” which will air Nov. 25 on HBO, and tell the stories of four people who may — or may not — have been Cooper.

“The Final Hunt for D.B. Cooper,” meanwhile, focuses on Ulis’ conviction that the extensive search for Cooper was conducted in the wrong place. The documentary includes several sequences of Ulis and his team searching for signs that the skyjacker may have landed in an area near Ridgefield, Washington.

As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported, in 2019 Ulis was looking at sites near the Columbia River, including Bachelor Island and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. In “The Final Hunt for D.B. Cooper,” Ulis, along with local search and rescue volunteers and others, hunt in that region for evidence that might indicate Cooper landed in the vicinity.

The episode also features information about Sheridan Peterson, a former smokejumper who Ulis and others have long suspected may be Cooper.