Message posted by lone wolf on September 18, 2004 at 11:17:30 PST:
According to James Bamford, the plane was shot down at 70500ft. The Soviets launched a SA2, which exploded behind Powers' U2, knocking off the tail. Soon afterwards, the wings fell off. The last time Powers saw an altimeter was at 34k ft. Powers' talks about his face mask being frosted over, so I gather he left the plane in his suit. It isn't clear to me if the ejector seat was used. If you are interested in the time line, the flight was May 1, 1960. The Soviets first spoke of the recovered debris on May 5th. They waited until the 7th to say that they had Powers. The Soviets figured it would be more interesting to hear the US lie about the plane, which was done by NASA on the 5th, then revealed they had the pilot. The cover story was weather research, but the Soviets had recovered the tapes containing radar signals (ELINT).
In Reply to: Gary Powers and U2 ejection posted by Gus on September 18, 2004 at 10:22:59 PST:
Replies: