On the eve of Thanksgiving, 1971 a man under the assumed name Dan Cooper, boards the half hour shuttle from Portland to Seattle. He is dressed in a business suit, carries an attaché case and takes his seat at the back of the plane. Once in the air, he claims to have a bomb and demands a ransom of $200,000 (about $2million in modern terms) and four parachutes. Nearly four hours later, the plane lands at SeaTac International and taxies to a remote part of the runway. The money and parachutes are loaded on board before 36 passengers and two stewardesses are freed. The plane is refueled and takes off towards Reno, Nevada.
Some twenty minutes later, an emergency light indicates to the remaining crew that the rear stairs have been deployed. A change in cabin pressure indicates that Dan Cooper has leapt from the back of the plane, and is never seen or heard of again. Thousands of FBI man-hours are devoted to catching the ‘gentleman thief’. But they find no trace of the hijacker, dead or alive.
Then, in 1980, after nearly a decade of silence, a young boy finds $5800 of the original ransom money buried in a sandbar of the Columbia River, nearly thirty miles from the calculated drop zone. Did Dan Cooper bury the money? Or did the three bundles of cash suggest that Cooper had perished that night? The debate has raged for decades, creating a legend of almost mythic proportions, even giving him a new pseudonym, DB Cooper
Today, the FBI is reexamining the case of Dan Cooper. But with limited resources and a lone agent assigned to the case, they are reaching out to the public for help. Amateur sleuths and volunteer forensic scientists have come forward. They are investigating recent leads with new perspective and re-approaching old evidence with modern tools.
Using state-of-the-art forensic technology, can the small amount of Cooper’s ransom money found in 1980 provide the lead they have been missing? Can the tie, left on the plane, and presumed to be Cooper’s, reveal more secrets about where the hijacker came from? Or will one of the many suspects put forward compare with the DNA traces on file and prove to be DB Cooper.
Credits
NGC WEB CREDITS
DRAFT
Series Title: UNDERCOVER HISTORY
Episode Title: THE SKYJACKER THAT GOT AWAY
Produced, Directed & Written by
PHILIP J. DAY
Editor
AARON MCADAMS
Director, Special Effects
CALDER GREENWOOD
Directors of Photography
PHILIP J. DAY
OWEN SIMMONS
ROY KURTLUYAN
DANIEL PFISTERER
Aerial Photography
JOE JENNINGS
2nd Unit Camera
COLIN HARGRAVES
Original Music
J. GRANT BUCKERFIELD
Producer – Recreations
WILLIAM MARTENS
Field Producer
AUTUMN DEVITRY
Production Coordinator – Recreations
SARA KAHN
Assistant Director
JEREMY GILBREATH
Art Director
MARK FENLASON
Costume Designer
TAMMIE HICKS
Makeup Artist
LORRAINE MARTIN
Gaffer
MIKE BUDDE
Best Boy
MILES EACHART
Swing
DANA ANDERSON
Grip
QUINTON GARDNER
Sound Recordist
STEPHEN BENASSU
Key Production Assistant
KATIE GREENFIELD
Art Department Assistants
MATTHEW LACH
ANTHONY PEARCE
Colorist
STEVE JOHNSON
Assistant Editor and Engineer
DANA STROM
Supervising Sound Editor
CHRISTOPHER WINTER
Sound Editor
SANDY GENDLER
Re-recording Mixer
ANDREW GARRETT LANGE
Sound Engineer
BILL RITTER
Re-Recording Facility
ELECTRIC ENTERTAINMENT
Production Controller
MELISSA M. QUEVEDO
Narrator
JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY
Coordinator, Art & Animation
SHANA KIM
Production Manager
TEJINDER GORSKI
Production Coordinator
JACQUELINE SHUKUR-POWELL
Series Researcher
KATIA ANDREASSI
Director, Research
TODD HERMANN
Specialist, Production Rights and Clearances
KATIE LEE
Manager, Production Rights and Clearances
MARLENE WALKER-GOLDEN
Post Production Supervisor
BRETT REINKE
Post Production Coordinator
PETER TAKACS
Manager, Post Production Operations
BRADEN MCILVAINE
Specialist, Facilities & Scheduling
MARCIE CALLAHAN
Manager, Facilities & Scheduling
JULIA WHITCOMB SHEEHY
Manager, Art and Animation
JESSE GORDON
Director, Engineering Global Media
DWIGHT MAYHEW
For National Geographic Television
Director, Art and Animation
KEITH KOLDER
Director, Production Rights and Clearances
CATHERINE YELLOZ
Director, Operations
ROSEANNE LOPOPOLO
Vice President, Operations
MICHAEL CASTRO
Executive Producer
JOHN MERNIT
Senior Vice President, Series
KATHY DAVIDOV
Senior Vice President, Standards and Practices
SCOTT WYERMAN
Vice President, Series Development
CARRIE REGAN
Executive Vice President, Development
MARYANNE CULPEPPER
President, NGT
MICHAEL ROSENFELD
Special Thanks
* Comic books ‘DAN COOPER’ by Albert WEINBERG, published by DARGAUD
* ROBERTA BURROUGHS
* FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, SEATTLE DIVISION
* TAMMY OUGHTON
* MOLLY LITTLEFIELD
* LYLE CHRISTIANSON
* BRUCE THUN
* SCOTT SMITH, PERRIS VALLEY SKYDIVING
* ARIAL STORE AND TAVERN
* “SLUGGO”
* DEAN DEVLIN
Stock Footage
* GETTY IMAGES
* WPA FILM LIBRARY
* BBC WORLDWIDE AMERICA
* MICHAEL LLOYD/THE OREGONIAN
* SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
* U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
* LYLE CHRISTIANSON
* JOHN DELTLOR
* FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, SEATTLE DIVISION
* THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
For National Geographic Channel:
Executive Producer
NOAH MOROWITZ
Senior Vice President of Production
JULIET BLAKE
Production Manager
KAREN GREENFIELD
Unit Manager
ASHLEY LORENZO
Production Assistant
MARION ASHLEY SAID
Executive in Charge of Production
STEVE BURNS
Produced by
Edge West, Inc. in association with National Geographic Television for the National Geographic Channel
(c) MMIX NGHT, INC.
All Rights Reserved
