The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974

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177
See, et NOFORN
Chapter 4
area. The plane began spiraling down toward the ground and Powers
looked for a way out. Unable to use the ejection seat because centrifu­
gal force had thrown him against the canopy, he released the canopy
and prepared to bail out, waiting to arm the destruction device at the
last minute, so that it would not go off while he was still in the plane.
When he released his seatbelt, however, he was immediately sucked
out of the aircraft and found himself dangling by his oxygen hose, un­
able to reach the destruction switches. Finally, the hose broke and he
tlew away from the falling aircraft. After he fell several thousand
feet, his parachute opened automatically, and he drifted to earth where
he was quickly surrounded by farmers and then by Soviet officials. 29
His aircraft had not been destroyed by the crash, and the Soviets were
able to identify much of its equipment when they put it on display 10
days later. Even if Powers had been able to activate the destruction
device, however, it would not have destroyed the aircraft. The small
explosive charge was only designed to wreck the camera.
How had the Soviets succeeded in downing the U-2? Although
some CIA project officials initially wondered if Powers had been fly­
i_ng too low through an error or mechanical malfunction, he main­
tained that he had been flying at his assigned altitude and had been
brought down by a near miss of a Soviet surface-to-air missile. This
turned out to be the case, for in March 1963, the US air attache in
Moscow learned that the Sverdlovsk SA-2 battery had fired a
three-missile salvo that, in addition to disabling Powers' plane, also
scored a direct hit on a Soviet fighter aircraft sent aloft to intercept
the U-2.'0 Mission planners had not known about this SAM site be­
fore the mission because they always laid out flight plans to avoid
known SAM sites.
THE AFTERMATH OF THE U-2 DOWNING
The first indication that something was wrong with Powers' m1ss1on
came even before he was overdue at Bodo, Norway. The CIA
Operations Center learned on l May at 0330 hours Washington time
'' Powers, Operation Overjliglzt. pp. 82-84; Beschloss. Mayday, pp. 26-28: Transcript of
Debriefing Tapes of Francis Gary Powers, 13 February 1962. Board of Inquiry on the
Conduct of Francis Gary Powers, Operations MUDLARK tiles, OSA records. job
74-8-605, box 6 (S).
"' Cunningham interview, 4 October 1983 (TS Codeword); OSA History, chap. 14, p. 55
(TS Codeword).
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