Lexion
06-23-2010, 05:57 PM
The reputation of Francis Gary Powers has suffered for a half-century by association with one of the most enduring mysteries of the Cold War.
Fifty years ago today, in a full-body pressure suit and helmet, Powers was slammed forward against the canopy of his U-2 spy plane 70,000 feet above central Russia by a Soviet surface-to-air missile exploding close behind him. The blast wave dismembered the plane, tearing off its tail section and then its wings, but leaving its pilot miraculously unhurt.
In an outer pocket of his suit Powers carried a suicide pin that he chose not to use. He hit the ground in shock but with hardly a scratch. By that evening he was at KGB headquarters in Moscow.
MYSTERY: Wreckage of the U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers (inset) is displayed at a museum in Russia.
What was not known until the recent declassification of CIA documents, was that top US officials never believed Powers’ account of his fateful flight because it appeared to be directly contradicted by a report from the National Security Agency.
According to a summary presented this week by Matthew Aid, the world’s leading authority on the NSA, the agency’s report described Soviet military air-traffic controllers as after an aircraft that — far from breaking up at close to 70
,000 feet, as Powers later claimed — descended slowly from 65,000 to 34,000 feet, changed course and disappeared from their radar screens.
Source (http://rupeenews.com/2010/05/15/u2-flights-from-peshawar-cias-gary-powers-legends/)
Thoughts ?
Fifty years ago today, in a full-body pressure suit and helmet, Powers was slammed forward against the canopy of his U-2 spy plane 70,000 feet above central Russia by a Soviet surface-to-air missile exploding close behind him. The blast wave dismembered the plane, tearing off its tail section and then its wings, but leaving its pilot miraculously unhurt.
In an outer pocket of his suit Powers carried a suicide pin that he chose not to use. He hit the ground in shock but with hardly a scratch. By that evening he was at KGB headquarters in Moscow.
MYSTERY: Wreckage of the U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers (inset) is displayed at a museum in Russia.
What was not known until the recent declassification of CIA documents, was that top US officials never believed Powers’ account of his fateful flight because it appeared to be directly contradicted by a report from the National Security Agency.
According to a summary presented this week by Matthew Aid, the world’s leading authority on the NSA, the agency’s report described Soviet military air-traffic controllers as after an aircraft that — far from breaking up at close to 70
,000 feet, as Powers later claimed — descended slowly from 65,000 to 34,000 feet, changed course and disappeared from their radar screens.
Source (http://rupeenews.com/2010/05/15/u2-flights-from-peshawar-cias-gary-powers-legends/)
Thoughts ?