The Hijacking of American Flight 119

October 9, 2023
In this brisk account, historian Wigger (PTL) delves into the skyjacking phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on the well-known and still-unsolved case of D.B. Cooper, the media sobriquet of a passenger who hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 in 1971, demanded and received a ransom of $200,000, and parachuted into the wilderness of the Cascade Range in southeastern Washington state. Other American skyjackers covered (there were more than a dozen during this time period) include Cooper copycats Richard McCoy, Robb Heady, and Martin McNally. The terror caused by these incidents led to a full-scale overhaul of safety and security on airlines and at airports. (In the case of McNally, security was virtually nonexistent at the St. Louis airport; he was able to smuggle a submachine gun onto the plane.) Over time, a certain mystique developed around Cooper, the only one of the era’s well-known skyjackers not to be apprehended, but Wigger argues Cooper’s jump was actually less daring and dangerous than some of the others that were successfully completed. Drawing on his analysis of the other skyjackings, Wigger asserts that Cooper survived, and probably had an accomplice. He also suggests that Cooper, like the others he profiles, was probably a combat veteran. Propulsive and insightful, this is a thorough portrait of a striking episode in American history.