SEATTLE, WA (WCMH) – The FBI announced Tuesday it is no longer actively investigating the 1971 D.B. Cooper hijacking case.

The FBI announced that after 45 years, the resources dedicated to the D.B. Cooper case will be allocated to other investigations.

During the course of the 45-year NORJAK investigation, the FBI exhaustively reviewed all credible leads, coordinated between multiple field offices to conduct searches, collected all available evidence, and interviewed all identified witnesses. Over the years, the FBI has applied numerous new and innovative investigative techniques, as well as examined countless items at the FBI Laboratory. Evidence obtained during the course of the investigation will now be preserved for historical purposes at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The case centers around the 1971 hijacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 from Portland to Seattle.

During the flight, a man calling himself Dan Cooper handed the flight attendant a note indicating he had a bomb and that he wanted her to sit with him.

The stunned stewardess did as she was told. Opening a cheap attaché case, Cooper showed her a glimpse of a mass of wires and red colored sticks and demanded that she write down what he told her. Soon, she was walking a new note to the captain of the plane that demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in twenty-dollar bills.

After the plane landed in Seattle, Cooper exchanged 36 passengers for the money and parachutes.

The plane then took off again, bound for Mexico City.

Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, the hijacker jumped out the back of the plane with the parachute and money.

The plane later landed safely, with the hijacker nowhere to be seen.

The fate of the hijacker and the money remain a mystery.

Perhaps Cooper didn’t survive his jump from the plane. After all, the parachute he used couldn’t be steered, his clothing and footwear were unsuitable for a rough landing, and he had jumped into a wooded area at night-a dangerous proposition for a seasoned pro, which evidence suggests Cooper was not. This theory was given an added boost in 1980 when a young boy found a rotting package full of twenty-dollar bills ($5,800 in all) that matched the ransom money serial numbers.

The FBI says that while the active investigation is over, if clear physical evidence surfaces, they will reopen the case.What others are clicking on: