Skyjacker '71: The D.B. Cooper Transmissions
Season 6, Episode 11
November 18, 2018
A legend. A mystery. The saga begins.
Re-Imagined Radio presents "Skyjacker '71: The D.B. Cooper Transmissions," the first of three radio stories written and directed by Dan Wyatt, Jr. Performed by Metropolitan Performing Arts actors and other community volunteers at Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver, Washington. We explore communications between multiple agencies and individuals as they attempt to resolve a tense situation, keep citizens safe and informed, and uphold the law. From our Guest Writer series.
Access the episode script
Background
1971. Thanksgiving eve, November 24. A passenger hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 en route from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, by convincing the flight crew he has a bomb in his briefcase.
He demands $200,000 in cash and four parachutes, two for emergencies and two for his getaway, and orders the crew to fly towards Mexico. He releases all passengers and all crew members except for two pilots and one flight attendant when the plane lands at Seattle International Airport to pick up the money and parachutes. The plane is refueled. It takes off but never reaches Mexico.
At 8:13 p.m. an air stair opens on Northwest Orient Flight 305 and the hijacker parachutes. With him, somewhere around $200,000 in cash. He is last observed on radar over southwest Washington. He is never apprehended, never found. Not even a trace.
Forty-seven years later, the mystery of this hijacking, the crime, and the fate of the hijacker, D.B. Cooper, remain unsolved and legendary.
Production
Contents
An original radio script, "Skyjacker '71: The D.B. Cooper Transmissions," written by Dan Wyatt, Jr. This
episode is Part 1 of The D.B. Cooper Saga.
The Skyjacker, 2020
In Flight with D.B. Cooper, 2019
Skyjacker '71: The D.B. Cooper Transmissions, 2018
Cast
Anne McErney-Ogle as Drive Up Server, Vi Beslow, and Tina Mucklow
John F. Barber as Ralph Himmelsbach
John Oberg as Radio Dispatch, Al Lee, Dennis, Gordon Embree, and Earl Cosley
Mark Martin as Lou and J. Edgar Hoover
Larry Taylor as Scotty, Reporter One, Flight Operator, and Agent Campbell
Barbara Richardson as TV Reporter, Minneapolis Agent, and Interviewer
Nick D'Ettore as Julius, Richard Nixon, Boeing Official, and D.B. Cooper
Greg Shilling as Captain WIilliam A. Scott, Professor Otto Larsen, and Frank Faist
Arianna Dorenbosch as Florence, Janis Beslow, and Reporter Two
Steve Becker as Agent, Seattle Attorney, and Sheriff Gene Cotton
Joey Yourcheck as Boeing Engineer and Bystander
Credits
Written and Directed by Dan Wyatt, Jr.
Produced and Hosted by John F. Barber
Sound Design, Music, and Post Production by Marc Rose
Promotional Graphics by Dan Wyatt, Jr.
Significance
Cooper hijacked a passenger jet airliner Thanksgiving eve, 1971 and parachuted from the airliner over Southwest Washington with $200,000 in cash. Cooper's hijacking is the only unsolved air piracy case in America. His exploit is celebrated in movies, television, song, and now, radio.
As Dan Wyatt writes in his script, "This is the only unsolved, domestic hijacking in our nation's history. Its effect on our way of life had lasting effect to this day forty nine years later. Metal detectors, x-rays and security personal became the norm to deter would be hijackers. As was the "Cooper Vane" preventing an airliner exit door being opened mid flight."
Resources
Gray, Geoffrey. Skyjack: The Hunt for D. B. Cooper. Crown, 2011.
D.B. Cooper Hijacking. FBI Famous Cases & Criminals.
Miller, Jeff. Miller: Airplane Hijackings During the Late 1960s and Early 1970s. Columbia Daily Tribune. July 2, 2023.
Producer's Notes
The Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, Anne McErney-Ogle, had three roles in this performance.
Dan Wyatt, Jr. has a genetic connection to this story. His mother-to-be was delayed in the Seattle airport during the time Flight 305 was on the ground there. He shares a cameo interview with his mother to tell that story.
"Skyjacker '71" dramatizes conversations that may have occurred between D. B. Cooper and Tina Mucklow,
the one stewardess about Flight 305 that spent the most time with him.
— John F. Barber
Promotion
Press
Read the press
release→
Hewitt, Scott. "Riddle on the Radio." The Columbian, 17 Nov. 2018, pp. D1, D2.
Hewitt, Scott. Unsolved
mystery of D.B. Cooper comes to the Kiggins stage→. The
Columbian, 17 Nov. 2018.
Vondersmith, Jason. D.B. Cooper Radio. Bits &
Pieces→. Portland Tribune, 20 Nov. 2018.
Graphics
