How easy was it to hijack a plane before airport security? I'm Adam from Ripley's.com, and this is your Weird Minute. On November 24th, 1971, Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727. His bag wasn't checked, He didn't go through a metal detector, he just bought his ticket and boarded. The norm of the day. Dressed as a travelling salesman, midway through the flight, he slipped a flight attendant a note saying he was hijacking the plane.
Thinking it was just another desperate salesman's number, she had thrown it unread into her purse. Angry he wasn't taken seriously, Cooper showed her the bomb he had carried onto the plane in his suitcase. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000.
He got what he wanted when they landed, then took the pilots hostage, directing them to fly him to Mexico. However, when they got there, Cooper was gone. The pilots had been in the cockpit the whole time, and the rear door was open. Cooper must have jumped.
Authorities later found out that the thief had been in the Air Force and was quite familiar with parachutes. Mysteriously, he nor the money ever resurfaced. Some of the money was discovered in Canada, but it was still packaged and in sequential order. as he'd been given it. No one knows what happened to Cooper. For more stories of lost treasure, head to ripleys.com, rate The Weird Minute if you haven't already, and tune in tomorrow for another Minute of Odds.