It was an ordinary flight from Portland to Seattle, turned extraordinary, when a man in black

registered as D.B. Cooper made a bomb threat. The infamous D.B. Cooper hijacking occurred in the fall of 1971 at the height of an epidemic.

During the six-year span between 1967 and 1972, more than 300 commercial airplanes were hijacked worldwide,

with over 130 of those occurring in the United States alone.

This was the golden age of skyjacking.

But it's Cooper's hijacking that we remember

because he provided the blueprint for how to pull it off and get away.

When I decided that I would skyljack a plane.

I started to make preparations for which airport

I would grab a plane from.

Six months after Cooper's legendary heist,

a small-time crook from Detroit would attempt his own bigger and bolder

skyjacking score.

Just grab a weapon, grab a note, go on a plane and order all the stuff you need.

Parachutes, money, and bail out.

This decision would set in motion one of the most epic American true crime sagas in history.

I said, okay, this is it.

One involving multiple... I said, okay, this is it.

One involving multiple aircraft hijackings.

So he reached back and grabbed her gun.

They started wrestling.

While they're doing that, the aircraft starts falling out of the sky.

...