Robert Rackstraw was a retired pilot and an ex-convict who had served on the Army helicopter crew in the Vietnam War. In February 1978, he was arrested in Iran and deported to the US over explosives possession and check-kiting charges. He later tried to fake his own death in a rented plane and was arrested for allegedly forging federal pilot certificates. Rackstraw resembled sketches of Cooper but would have only been 28 at the time of the hijacking, while Cooper was believed to be in his mid-40s.
In 2016, Rackstraw reemerged as a suspect when The History Channel released a special called "DB Cooper: Case Closed?" and author Thomas J. Colbert published a book about the investigation. Working with attorney Mark Zaid, Colbert pushed the FBI to release the Cooper case file to the public under the Freedom of Information Act and later uncovered evidence — including a "decades-old parachute strap" and a mysterious letter — that might be linked to the hijacking.
Ultimately, no direct evidence could be found linking Rackstraw to the Cooper case, with a flight attendant from Flight 305 noting that she "did not find any similarities" between photos of Rackstraw and Cooper's appearance. Rackstraw died in 2019.
