D. B. Cooper

Roger Walter

Reading — Intermediate Level
Share this exercise
Activity

Read the text and answer the questions

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the northwest United States, in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 24, 1971. He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,210,000 in 2017) and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and protracted FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or identified. It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history.

Despite a case file that grew to over 60 volumes over that time period, no definitive conclusions have been reached regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts if he survived the jump.

The FBI officially suspended active investigation of the case in July 2016, but the agency continues to request that any physical evidence that might emerge related to the parachutes or the ransom money be submitted for analysis.
Source: Wikipedia
  1. D. B. Cooper is…
  2. What happened to D. B. Cooper?
  3. How many other unsolved cases of air piracy have there been?
  4. D. B. Cooper…
  5. What did the FBI do with the case?
Submit
Discussion

Practice your writing skills by discussing the questions below

  1. What do you think happened to D. B. Cooper? Why?
  2. What are other famous unsolved mysteries that you've heard of?
  3. Why do you think people find cases like this so interesting?
    Roger Walter

    Need help?

    Ask a question or reserve a class with Roger Walter

    Vocabulary

      • an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned
      • (extorted) to obtain something by force, threats, or other unfair means
      • (hijacked) take illegal control of an aircraft, ship, or vehicle and force it to go to a different destination
      • an organized search for a person, especially a criminal
      • the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea, or in other contexts, such as hijacking
      • a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner
      • the place where someone or something is

    Translate

    From English
    To
    No translation
    © bitgab LLC
    Terms Privacy Cookies Advertise Learn English online blog Facebook Twitter