By Tim Binnall
An incredible previously unreleased audio recording from the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacking case has been revealed, allowing listeners to eavesdrop on some critical moments during the legendary caper. Researchers Nicholas Broughton and Ryan Burns received the remarkable relic from a source, who has asked to remain anonymous. The audio is derived from badly degraded cassette tapes, which this individual had in their possession for several decades. The duo were provided with around forty minutes of total audio, but only twelve minutes were able to be restored to a listenable condition with the hope that more of the recording can be recovered in the future.
Northwest Airlines, which owned the plane Cooper skyjacked that fateful 1971 Thanksgiving Eve, created the audio by splicing together recordings of two separate radio frequencies used when the passenger jet stopped at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). It was during this period that the passengers and most of the flight crew were released from the plane, the requested $200,000 ransom and parachutes were delivered to Cooper, and the airliner was refueled in anticipation of continuing the flight to Mexico City. In the newly released audio, Captain William Scott, Co-Pilot Bill Rataczak, and Al Lee, Chief Pilot for Northwest Airlines and chosen courier for the skyjacking spoils, can be heard initially discussing a "contingency plan" wherein the remaining crew would make a run for it "if that opportunity avails itself."
Later in the recording, the tension of the moment is palpable as problems with the refueling process caused a considerable delay on the ground and consternation from Cooper. "We do want the fuel truck to come up, dammit," Rataczak sternly relays to the Sea-Tac tower as the mounting issues required multiple vehicles. "He's getting awfully antsy," the co-pilot reports of Cooper as they wait for the airliner to be ready for takeoff. During the delay, Scott notes specific gear settings that the skyjacker requested for the flight and muses, "he seems to know a little bit about an airplane." Shortly thereafter, the Sea-Tac tower suggests the incident could be a copy of a similar skyjacking involving a parachute that occurred on an Air Canada flight earlier in the month.
Later, the crew and Paul Soderlind, Northwest Airlines' Director of Flight Operations, discuss how best to fly to Mexico City and where the airliner might stop if it needs to refuel again. The passenger jet subsequently takes to the sky, with the case and the newly released audio reaching a crescendo. Explaining that Cooper plans to parachute from the plane with the money, Rataczak indicates that "he may well be leaving us at any time, if not already." Constituting the only known audio from the legendary 1971 skyjacking, the surfacing of the material after all these years is nothing short of unfathomable and a testament to the possibility that additional evidence from the case could still exist. While in this day and age, one can be forgiven for thinking such an astonishing recording is actually a fantastic digital fabrication, Burns, who handled the restoration work on the audio, stressed to C2C that "these tapes are verifiably authentic and come from a reliable source."