The DB Cooper story

On Thanksgiving eve 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper bought an airplane ticket from Portland to Seattle. When they were in the air, he handed a flight attendant a note saying he had a bomb in his briefcase. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. When they had what Cooper demanded, they landed in Seattle, let the passengers and some of the crew off, and took off again. With the crew ensconced in the cockpit, Cooper lowered the aft staircase from the tail of the plane, walked down the stairs and jumped, never to be seen again. 

For more background on the Cooper case and Kenny Christiansen, see "Unmasking American Legend D.B. Cooper," which appeared in New York magazine.