Will a Parachute Found 2 Years Ago Help Solve the D.B. Cooper Skyjacking Case? Man Who Made Discovery Speaks Out

A man who discovered the parachute believes a man who executed a similar hijacking was D.B. Cooper

A parachute that might have been used by the skyjacker who called himself D.B. Cooper could potentially help authorities solve the mystery of the infamous plane hijacking.

In November 1971, an unidentified man who is now known by the moniker D.B. Cooper boarded a plane in Portland and told a flight attendant he had explosives in his bag. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes.

When the plane landed in Seattle, he was given the money and then instructed the pilot to fly to Mexico before parachuting out of the plane near the Oregon border. He was never found, though nearly a decade later a boy found $5,800 of the money near the Columbia River.

But a suspect has never been publicly named and the mystery officially remains unsolved, though several names have been suggested as the potential culprit.

One name that has been considered a longtime possibility is Richard Floyd McCoy, who perpetrated a nearly identical hijacking a few months after the Cooper incident. McCoy was later identified as the suspect and was convicted of aircraft piracy and sentenced to 45 years in prison, though he maintained his innocence, according to the FBI.

But in 1974, McCoy escaped custody and was later killed in a shootout with FBI agents in Virginia.

Though their father has been dead for 50 years, McCoy’s children believe their father was also the man responsible for the D.B. Cooper hijacking, according to Cowboy State Daily.

Dan Gryder is an aviation YouTuber who believes McCoy is D.B. Cooper and has been in touch with his children. Gryder told Cowboy State Daily for a Nov. 24 story that he found a parachute rig he believes was used by Cooper during the hijacking at a North Carolina property belonging to McCoy’s mother.      

“That rig is literally one in a billion,” Gryder said, saying that it was a modified military surplus rig.

The paper reported that McCoy’s children had long suspected their father but did not say anything to protect their mother — who they believe helped their father. Their mother died in 2020, which is when the Cowboy State Daily reported they spoke to Gryder for the first time.

Following his discovery of the parachute, Gryder said he was subsequently contacted by the FBI, with whom he and McCoy’s son, Rick, met in September 2023.  Gryder reportedly said the parachute, harness and skydiving logbook were taken into evidence by the FBI.