DB Cooper's Landing Zone: Did He Survive in the Washington Wilderness?
On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, collected $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted into a rainstorm somewhere over southwest Washington. He was never found.
The FBI's best estimate of his landing zone places it in the wilderness between Ariel and Woodland, Washington — deep forest terrain southeast of Olympia. In 1980, a boy found $5,800 of the ransom money along the Columbia River near Vancouver, WA. No other bills have ever surfaced.
But what happened to Cooper? Did he survive the jump? The FBI officially says probably not — the weather was brutal, the terrain unforgiving, and he jumped at night with a malfunctioning parachute.
Local legends in Lewis County tell a different story. Old-timers in the timber towns speak of a stranger who appeared in the early 1970s — quiet, well-spoken, always paying in cash. He bought rural property and lived alone. When the FBI came asking questions, people in town suddenly developed collective amnesia.
"I've walked the probable drop zone," Captain Ron says. "That terrain — dense forest, steep ravines, few roads. If Cooper survived — and I think he did — he landed in one of the last truly wild places in the Lower 48. The forest swallowed him. And the forest keeps its secrets."
