D.B. Cooper hijacking and disappearance tied to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport

On November 24, 1971, a hijacker using the name 'D. B. Cooper' commandeered Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, extorted $200,000 and parachutes, and after a refueling stop at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport the aircraft departed and the hijacker jumped from the rear stairs during flight. The plane landed at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport for the ransom exchange before the flight resumed and Cooper vanished in federal airspace over Washington. Despite an extensive FBI investigation spanning decades, the hijacker's identity and ultimate fate remain unknown; in 1980 a small portion of the ransom money was found on the Columbia River shore near Vancouver, Washington. The case remains one of the most famous unsolved disappearances associated with Seattle-area transportation history.