U-2+Crisis+-+Foor

1960 U-2 Crisis

The 1960 U-2 Crisis occured on May 1, 1960 during the Cold War, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The United States government denied the purpose and mission of the plane at first, but then was forced to tell its role as a surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its reamins and surviving pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The incident was a great embarassment to the United States and caused a drop in its relations with the Soviet Union.

The mission was originally suppose to take place on April 29, 1960 but was delayed two days because of bad weather. The weather improved on May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers left the US base in Peshawar on a mission to overfly the Soviet Union, photographing ICBM sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk, then land in Norway.

All units of the Soviet Air Defence Forces in the Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Ural and later in the U.S.S.R. European Region and Extreme North were on red alert, and the U-2 flight was expected. Soon after the plane was detected, Lieutenant General of the Air Force Yevgeniy Savitskiy ordered the air-unit commanders "to attack the violator by all alert flights located in the area of foreign plane's course, and to ram if necessary. ​ ​__Mysteries__ [|Wikispace] [|American History]
 * 1) 1. Gary Powers was flying his plane below the high flying reconnaissance altitude and was hit by anti-aircraft fire.
 * 2) 2.Gary Powers actually landed the plane in the Soviet Union.
 * 3) 3.There was a bomb on board the plane.
 * 1) 3.There was a bomb on board the plane.
 * 1) 3.There was a bomb on board the plane.