Brain Teasers
Parachuting Criminal
Fun: (2.85)
Difficulty: (2.45)
Puzzle ID: #18239
Submitted By: wizecracker55 Corrected By: MarcM1098
Submitted By: wizecracker55 Corrected By: MarcM1098
Mystery
Mystery teasers are little stories where you need to figure out what happened based on the given clues.Mystery
A man hijacks an aeroplane transporting both passengers and valuable cargo. After taking the cargo, the man demands two parachutes, puts one of them on, and jumps, leaving the other behind. Why did he want two?
Answer
If the officials thought he was jumping with a hostage, they would never risk giving him a faulty parachute.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Clever
On 24 November 1971, "Dan Cooper" hijacked NW Orient Flight 305, released the passengers in exchange for $200'000 and FOUR PARACHUTES (reason given in teaser answer), had the plane take off again, and jumped, never to be seen again. $5800 of the ransom money was eventually found.
Maybe he knew that the plane only carried 2 parachutes so he got both of them, disabled one and jumped with the other so that no-one could follow?
Sep 07, 2004
oooh, I liked it except that in reality, it may turn out to be different.
Wow. Never thought about that. I thought it was that he had to carry his suitcase with him....
Interesting answer, but for some reason I thought the riddle went in a different direction where the plane carried "both passangers and cargo" meant there were 2 passangers and cargo was a third object... thereby making the "left the other behind" refer to the other passenger and not the parachute. Either way... clever.
I thought the same thing to almond greif
i really like this one!!!!! 5 million thumbs up!!!!
This was tricky. I thought maybe he didn't want anyon else to follow. Good one!!
I still don't get it, but okay...don't call me stupid, I just didn't get it!
Jan 26, 2005
Funny........that was a smart criminal!
That was smart! I never would have thought of that.
same here with almondgrief and babygirl35
except with the cargo
and i dont get it...
except with the cargo
and i dont get it...
Great teaser dumbell! I missed the answer but enjoyed the journey!
I thought maybe one of the "passengers" was really an accomplice. I read too much into everything! Nice job!
very unlikely....can we get some realistic riddles...this would be something that happens in a cheesey Keauna Reeves movie.
it was kinda lame!
why did he have to get the parachutes off officials? don't planes come with parachutes on them?
I read that one somewhere b4 but I still love it
A bit con4sing but nice!
Just because you guys didn't like it, doesn't mean it's lame. I think it's a great teaser.
good teaser.. short but sweet lol
I heard this one before
I agree with canu about the "Dan Cooper" Incident. But I thought he was refered to as E.B Cooper. Anyways great teaser based on real story.
ive heared this one b4 in a teaser book and it was easy for me
Aug 20, 2006
good but even thou i thought it was going to be something else,, still a good answer
I thought he wanted the other one so he could take the chute out of the pack and fill it with the goods he was stealing...
awesome teaser! I loved it!
What officials would ever sabotage a parachute merely for theft? I really don't think that would be standard operating procedure.
This question was badly worded. I could not understand it.
Sherlock -- his name is D.B Cooper, and it's one of the most puzzling unsolved mysteries out there.
I figured he left the second parachute behind to make others think that he had an accomplice on board who would follow later if need be -- or something like that.
Pretty clever.
I figured he left the second parachute behind to make others think that he had an accomplice on board who would follow later if need be -- or something like that.
Pretty clever.
commercial planes carring passengers don't have parachutes!
Hijacking is a different crime than theft.
Interesting idea. Thanks for posting.
Interesting sidenote to the D.B. Cooper story, taken straight from Wikipedia:
"It also revealed that he requested four parachutes—two main back chutes and two reserve chest chutes. Authorities inadvertently supplied Cooper with a "dummy" reserve chute—an unusable parachute that is sewn shut for classroom demonstration. The dummy chute was not left behind on the plane, and some theorize Cooper did not realize it was not functional.[53] This piece of information had been revealed in a 1979 episode of TV documentary series In Search of.... The other reserve parachute, which was a functional parachute, was popped open and the shrouds were cut and supposedly used to secure the money bag."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.B._Cooper
"It also revealed that he requested four parachutes—two main back chutes and two reserve chest chutes. Authorities inadvertently supplied Cooper with a "dummy" reserve chute—an unusable parachute that is sewn shut for classroom demonstration. The dummy chute was not left behind on the plane, and some theorize Cooper did not realize it was not functional.[53] This piece of information had been revealed in a 1979 episode of TV documentary series In Search of.... The other reserve parachute, which was a functional parachute, was popped open and the shrouds were cut and supposedly used to secure the money bag."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.B._Cooper
"Hijacking is a different crime than theft."
I still don't think that any authority would intentionally risk the life of a criminal unless other lives were at risk. Unless this can be demonstrated, I think that making this assumption is far-fetched.
I still don't think that any authority would intentionally risk the life of a criminal unless other lives were at risk. Unless this can be demonstrated, I think that making this assumption is far-fetched.
Nice, very clever!
To sccr: If the officials did think he was jumping alone, they could stop him easily by giving him either a fake parachute or one that doesn't work. Since he requested TWO parachutes, they both had to work, because he might be taking a hostage, and (of course) the officials couldn't risk the hijacker giving the hostage (if there was a hostage) a faulty chute.
I thought he wanted the other one so he could take the chute out of the pack and fill it with the goods he was stealing...
Clever crook. Great teaser.
I thought the second was so they thought he had an accomplice as yet unknown, and the officials would therefore not try to capture him. Close.
Fantastic riddle. Never could have got to the answer by myself.
It's simple, really, to get the answer.
Smart smart
Kirakaty and I got the answer. It was not that hard. loved it!
Stupid and lame
I thought it was for the cargo. Hard one, but I'm not the brightest bulb around.
......oh I am going back to bed. Way too early in the a.m. for this one.
I'm left wondering how he took the cargo.
for seconds i thought the other parachute is for the cargo that is because it is valuable. i didnt think that the official would like to give him the faulty one.
Some interesting answers, especially the one with the wikipedia source. Lots of possibilities.
He said one was for his "partner" who was staying behind to make sure nobody tried anything...
I love these mystery puzzles, but they are more fun when done interactively. Then I can have multiple guesses. I figured he opened the second parachute, cut the strings, and stuffed the cargo in the backpack. He jumped leaving the open canopy behind.
I someone said, "nope", I could have kept pondering and guessing other solutions.
I someone said, "nope", I could have kept pondering and guessing other solutions.
To my knowledge, commercial airlines have never supplied parachutes, so I thought it must have been a military aircraft.
In which case, the highjacker may have deployed the second chute over the doorway, to delay any jumpers from following?
In which case, the highjacker may have deployed the second chute over the doorway, to delay any jumpers from following?
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