The mystery of the notorious DB Cooper plane hijacking could be solved 52 years later as new evidence finally comes to light.
Investigator Eric Ulis, who has been on the case for 13 years, believes that 2024 could be the year the puzzle is finally pieced together.
DB Cooper is the name given to an unknown man who hijacked a flight from Portland to Seattle in 1971. He claimed to have a bomb and demanded a ransom of $200,000 and four parachutes.
He ordered the passengers off the plane in Seattle before demanding it be flown to Mexico City, with a refuelling stop in Reno, Nevada. Half an hour after leaving Seattle, he parachuted out of the plane over southern Washington and was never found, leaving the case shrouded in mystery.
“Considering the rapid pace at which the DB Cooper enigma is being unraveled, I would not be at all surprised if this case is solved this year,” Ulis told the US Sun. “The investigation is evolving and moving very quickly and has been for the last few years. We are definitely sniffing in the right neighborhood. There’s no doubt about it at this point.”
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A new clue emerged last week that boosts Ulis’ confidence. A clip-on tie left by Cooper on the plane was found to have particles of stainless steel and pure titanium.
Scientist Tom Kaye, who examined the tie in 2013, made the discovery. He found thousands of particles, most of which were linked to aerospace. Among them were high-grade stainless steel and titanium. Ulis believes that these discoveries could be key in cracking the case.
“The particle […] has served as an enigma in that it has been difficult to explain the environment in which such a particle could have been formed given the enormous amount of pressure required to abrade 400 series stainless steel (the hardest steel) into titanium,” Ulis said.
DB Cooper investigator, Eric Ulis, recently discovered that a particle found on the hijacker came from a process known as ‘cold rolling.’ “Cold rolling titanium is only done in a specialty metals facility. The process is almost exclusively used to craft parts for aerospace applications.” he explained.
This rare process during the 1960s could hint at where Cooper worked. Evidence suggests that the hijacker might have been employed at the now-closed Crucible Steel facility in Pittsburgh, which reportedly supplied materials to Boeing in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Cooper’s knowledge of airplane terminology and the inner workings of the aircraft has led many to believe he had a background in aviation. The type of titanium identified had two US Patents from Crucible associated with it. Ulis believes this could be key in identifying Cooper and solving the mystery.
The investigator stated: “There are very few places where titanium would’ve been cold-rolled, particularly in the 1960s,” and “And Crucible Steel is ground zero as far as where DB Cooper came from – at least in my mind – primarily because these particles only really came from there.
“He also mentioned that Crucible Steel was a significant subcontractor for Boeing and was the premier company for producing parts for the aerospace sector.
In late 2022, Kay’s findings lead to Ulis identifying a new suspect in the case. Vince Petersen, who was a former engineer at Crucible, died in 2002 but was named as the potential hijacker. He was 52 at the time of the skyjacking.
100,000 particles were found on the tie and several of these were extremely rare elements that could be traced to Crucible Steel. Uli says that these discoveries strengthen his opinion that Petersen could well have been Cooper.
“The particles on the tie are exceptionally rare and there’s a significant amount of them, north of 100,000, and there’s just very few places Cooper could’ve picked these things up,” Ulis said. “And when you consider the age of DB Cooper, his height, and things of this nature, it’s very easy to winnow down the field pretty quickly.”
During Ulis’ investigation, he made contact with a former Crucible employee. Ulis described Cooper’s features to the former supervisor who said that they matched those of Petersen. In the years before the skyjacking, Crucible only had eight engineers and a dozen assistants.
The engineers, it was explained to Ulis, wore ties but the assistants did not. “We’re dealing with a very small universe of people,” Ulis said.
“I know there are others who have combed through north of 100 men [who] worked for Crucible and other similar facilities but nobody checks the Cooper boxes like Vince Petersen. That doesn’t prove he was DB Cooper, of course, but it is compelling.”
“Given time, I think I’ll come up with something that’s going to seal the deal one way or the other. There’s just no doubt about that at this point.”
Ulis was intrigued by the discovery of a certain type of salt particle on the discarded tie. His research indicated that Petersen had conducted extensive studies on the effect of salt on titanium, even penning an academic paper on the subject.
Despite reaching out to Petersen’s son, he did not agree with Ulis’ theory that his father was DB Cooper. Now, Ulis is keen to examine the tie himself, believing the FBI may have missed crucial evidence that could contain the skyjacker’s DNA.
The tie features a small clasp in the knot that allows for size adjustments. Ulis suspects that if Cooper ever adjusted the tie, his DNA might be present. The existence of the tie was revealed in US Patent and Trademark documents.
When Ulis questioned two FBI investigators who worked on the case about whether they had analysed the clasp on the tie, they admitted they hadn’t. This led Ulis to believe there could still be hidden DNA evidence on the tie.
Last year, Ulis took legal action against the FBI, demanding they release the tie for his investigation. However, his efforts were unsuccessful, with a judge in late 2023 allowing the government to dismiss the motion.
US District Judge Jia M. Cobb stated: “Regardless of the intrigue and mystery that shrouds the case of D.B. Cooper, [the Freedom of Information Act] only compels production on ‘records,’ not tangible objects. At the very least, not this tangible object.”
She also mentioned previous cases, like a 1971 motion to access items related to JFK’s assassination. She said if items belonging to a President didn’t meet such a threshold, then a tie possibly owned by a skyjacker doesn’t either.
“A necktie – even a necktie that might contain DNA of a prominent figure like D.B. Cooper – struggles to find a place within the common understanding of ‘record’ is incapable of replication or copying and this is not ‘reproducible,’ and is seminal if not identical in kind to the physical items that court have already rejected as beyond the scope of FOIA.”
“Indeed, if the shirt and coat worn by President John F. Kennedy during his assassination do not qualify, then certainly the necktie of rogue hijacker D.B. Cooper warrants the same treatment. For this case, however, it suffices to say that to call a clip-on necktie an ‘agency record’ is not reasonable,” the judge added.
The Cooper case remains the only unsolved hijack story in all of American history. Despite examining over 800 suspects during the investigation, they couldn’t find Mr. Cooper. In 2016, the FBI shut this case for good.
“For this case, however, it suffices to say that to call a clip-on necktie an ‘agency record’ is not reasonable,” shared the judge.
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