Symbiosis Law School, Nagpur

Academic Year 2020-21

Batch 2019-24
BA/BBA. LLB
Semester-III

Name – Aryan Rawal

Section – B
PRN No. – 19010421096
Subject – Indian Penal Code
FACTS:
The case allotted here for analyzing and studying is famously known as the D.B. Cooper
case. It is one of those cases in the history of commercial aviation as well as FBI which are
till date a mystery and have remained unsolved over a period. This case has interesting facts
and mysteries involved within it, the plot of the case starts on the afternoon of thanks-giving
eve, November 24th, 1971, when a nondescript man calling himself D.B. Cooper approaches
the counter North-west Orient Airlines in Portland, Oregon. He purchased a $20 ticket, Flight
#305 which flew for Seattle, Washington. While the flight was waiting to take off he
purchased a soda and bourbon, after the flight took off a short time after he handed a note to
one of the flight-attendant which mentioned that the briefcase he had consisted of a bomb and
if she wants to stay safe he wants her to sit beside him. Threatened by this the flight-attendant
did as he said and sat beside him, after which the man calling himself D.B Cooper showed
her the suitcase which consisted of a bomb according to him which had a mass of wires and
red-colored sticks and a battery within it. She was asked to write down a note as instructed by
him in which he demanded $200,000 all in $20 bills and four parachutes.
The attendant gave this note to the pilots and as directed the flight landed to Seattle, at this
spot, 36 passengers were exchanged for the money and parachutes, whereas several crew
members consisting of two pilots, one flight attendant and one flight engineer were kept back
and the plane took off to Mexico City as directed by Cooper. Somewhere between the
latitudes of Seattle and Reno, the hijacker jumped out of the back of the plane with the
parachute and the money as well. After the flight safely landed, the pilots realized that
Cooper had disappeared mysteriously and till date nobody has seen or spotted him. The
Federal Bureau for Investigation (FBI) after learning about this crime immediately started an
extensive investigation that has lasted for many years.
The FBI interviewed hundreds of people, leads across the nation were tracked and the aircraft
was also inspected thoroughly. The investigators were completely perplexed, the
investigation further made clear that Cooper had taken his deal note back from the flight
attendant, thus another important evidence was not available for examination, even though
the hijacker had left some traces behind which included some cigarette butts, a hair on
headrest of his seat and a clip-on necktie. However, the FBI was unable to get any sort of
evidence such as fingerprints from the above mentioned, evidences. In the year 1980, a child
discovered something which reignited the interest in this mysterious unsolved case.
This child whose age was eight years found a bundle rotting on the banks of the Columbia
river which when summed up amounted $5,800 all in $20 bills. The child’s parents contacted
the police and informed them about this discovery, when the serial numbers were studied,
they matched with those on the cash issued to D.B. Cooper, and this is the only material
evidence which is available in this case. The cash was further auctioned by the founder of the
evidence and he earned a huge sum of money from it. Since there were no further leads, the
FBI decided to declare that they are closing the case since it showed pretty much of a dead
end without any further leads, the authorities will be better used if they used their skills in
solving other major cases which might actually have some leads instead of wasting their time
on a case that, since a long time had no major leads.
FOUR STAGES OF CRIME:
In criminal law, whenever a crime is said to be committed it is categorized into four stages as
follows:
1) Intention
2) Preparation
3) Attempt
4) Commission
The first stage is all about the intention to commit that particular crime which is also known
as ‘Mens Rea’, the second stage precisely talks about preparation for the commission of the
crime and which is the first step towards the commission of crime. The third stage is attempt
which is acting on the plan already made and thus in other words is also known as ‘Actus
Reus’, that is action which further leads to commission of the crime. It is important to note
that if the attempt fails, the crime thus is not committed the law still punishes the person for
attempting to commit the said crime as a precautionary measure to prevent the person from
committing the crime in future. Now to understand each of the above stages by simple
illustrations:
1) Intention: This stage is actually the first stage towards offence commission and is
known as the mental stage. Intention in simple words can also be stated as the
commission of crime in mental state or criminal intent. It is the formation of mental
element or ‘Mens Rea’. Even though this is the first stage towards commission of the
crime it is not triable in the courts of law, because as long as that criminal act rests in
his intention it has no as such cognizance to be taken.

Illustration: Raghav decides to kidnap Shivam in order to gain money from his
parents for buying a new car, in this case Raghav makes a plan in his mind for
kidnapping Shivam but due to fear of getting caught does not attempt to kidnap
Shivam, thus Raghav cannot be held liable for any criminal action as such because
this was merely a criminal intent devoid of any further actions to comprise it to a
crime.

2) Preparation: This stage is the second stage towards commission of any crime and is
cognizable as in the eyes of law, sometimes it may occur that the person goes beyond
the stage of preparation and reaches to the point of commission of act, he may change
his mind, repent & give up the idea of committing the crime which is not punishable.

Illustration: Raghav decides to kidnap Shivam and accordingly plans goons to manage
him and also pays them advance to kidnap. He also books a room for keeping Shivam
under detention, this action of Raghav comprises the second stage of crime
commission that is preparation and he can be tried for this.
3) Attempt: This is the third step towards crime commission and is highly actionable
even if the attempt fails as it constitutes the offence of attempt to commit the crime, in
order to constitute an offence for attempt there must be an act done with the intention
of committing an offence. Attempt in itself is completely an offence under the IPC
and is actionable per se. As attempt is an act done with an intention to cause harm or
to commit the offence it is penalized as a compoundable offence.

Illustration: As mentioned above Raghav pays and appoints the goons to kidnap
Shivam but in an attempt of kidnapping the goons mistaken Divyam for Shivam and
kidnap him as they think he is Shivam, in this case even though Shivam did not suffer
any harm Ram can be held liable as he had committed the act of kidnapping Dhruv in
an attempt to kidnap Shivam.

4) Commission: This is the final stage of crime commission as in it clearly fulfills the
essential for crime that is ‘Actus Reus’. This act accomplishes the criminal intent as it
completes the crime and is precedent to attempt.

Illustration: Continuing the above example only now Raghav is successful in

kidnapping Shivam and his goons have successfully brought Shivam to the room
which was rented by Raghav for detention of Shivam.

FOUR STAGES OF CRIME IN THE GIVEN CASE OF D.B. COOPER.

1) The first stage of crime commission as mentioned above which is intention can be
clearly observed as in the only intention of the accused that is D.B. Cooper in this
case was to hijack the aircraft and to get the ransom money by coercion, thus in
simple words his primary intention was to get money in this case. Since there are
no other instances where it is mentioned, that he had some motive other than
getting ransom money and hijacking the air craft in this case.

2) The second stage of crime that is preparation. It means to arrange the necessary
resources for the execution of the intentional criminal act it can be clearly observed
by Cooper’s actions that is, he carried a suitcase which he claimed to have a
bomb inside it as well as he carried a written note which he handed over to the
flight attendant, which makes it pretty clear that he entered the flight with proper
preparation of hijacking the flight. He also released thirty-six passengers but kept
in detention two pilots one flight attendant and also one engineer this shows that
because he had well prepared this plan and also executed it. He also demanded
$200,000 in $20 bills which clearly makes his intentions visible that he had
already planned the hijack or more like the ‘air-jack’. Also, the point that he
ordered four parachutes makes it clear that he was planning an escape from the
aircraft and thus this will also comprise to preparation of crime. It was a well
planned and executed crime.

3) The third stage that is the attempt which means an attempt is a direct movement
towards the execution of a crime after the preparation of the plan to commit the
 crime was accomplished when Cooper carried a suitcase which had a bomb within
it and also he threatened the flight attendant, made the flight attendant to sit beside
him and coerced her by showing the bomb in the suitcase and by threatening her
to cause an explosion using the explosive bomb if his demands were not
completed as well as he coerced the complete crew for getting the ransom sum of
money and the parachutes. He wanted to land at Mexico City but jumped half-way
close to Nevada, this can be considered close to attempt which failed. It is clear
from his actions that he was attempting to hijack the plane and to get the amount
of money and parachutes as well. But still the fact that he was able to escape with
the ransom money, without getting caught by the police can be considered as a
success of his plan.

4) The fourth stage of crime is commission of the criminal act which means if the
accused becomes successful in his attempt to commit the crime, he will be guilty of
the complete offense, in the above case it is the very point when Cooper jumped
from the aircraft and escaped with the said amount of cash by using the parachute
he demanded, thus the crime of hijacking and looting the amount was successfully
completed by D.B. Cooper.

Conclusion: The case of D.B. Cooper (Dan Cooper), also called as ‘NORJACK’
by the FBI during the investigation of the said case is still considered as one of the
greatest unsolved mystery of not only commercial aviation but of the American
crime history as well. The FBI declared the case officially closed on the grounds
that it had no major leads.