The Copycat D.B. Cooper Hijackings

The success of D.B. Cooper's 1971 skyjacking — in which he hijacked a Northwest Orient flight, extorted $200,000 in ransom, and parachuted to an unknown fate — inspired a wave of copycat aircraft hijackings in the months and years that followed. Within roughly 18 months of Cooper's jump, the FBI counted at least 15 attempted copycat parachute hijackings inspired directly by his method. The incidents revealed how a single high-profile, seemingly successful crime could generate an immediate and dangerous imitation wave.

Most of the copycat hijackers were far less successful. Richard McCoy Jr., a Vietnam veteran who hijacked a United Airlines flight in April 1972 and escaped with $500,000, was considered by some FBI agents to be Cooper himself, though this was never proven. McCoy was caught within days, convicted, escaped from prison, and was killed in a confrontation with FBI agents in 1974. Several others were arrested during or shortly after their attempts, failing to replicate the clean escape that had made Cooper famous.

The rash of copycat hijackings directly accelerated the implementation of mandatory passenger screening at American airports. Before 1973, airport security was largely voluntary and inconsistent. The epidemic of hijackings — including but extending beyond Cooper's imitators — forced the FAA and airline industry to introduce metal detectors, mandatory baggage checks, and federal air marshal programs. Airlines also modified their Boeing 727 aircraft to prevent the rear airstair from being opened in flight, a modification still known as the "Cooper vane."

The copycat phenomenon illustrated how media coverage of spectacular crimes can itself become a catalyst for more crime, a dynamic that has since been studied extensively in criminology. The legal and aviation security responses prompted by the Cooper hijacking and its imitators reshaped commercial air travel permanently. No copycat hijacker succeeded in replicating Cooper's apparent escape.