How did the Soviet Union shoot down an American spy plane?
An international diplomatic crisis erupted in May 1960 after the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane over its airspace and captured pilot Francis Gary Powers.
Faced with evidence of espionage, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to admit to the Soviet Union that his country's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been conducting reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union for several years.
The Soviet Union convicted Powers of espionage and sentenced the American pilot to 10 years in prison. However, after serving less than two years of his sentence, the pilot was released in a spy exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane on May 1, 1960, increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, according to History.
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| The Soviet Union shot down a spy plane, exposing America's lies. |
Peeking behind the iron curtain
Alarmed by the rapid development of the Soviet Union's military technology, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower - in power from 1953 to 1961, approved a plan to gather information about the Soviet Union's capabilities and intentions.
Beginning in 1956, high-altitude U-2 spy planes began conducting reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. These reconnaissance missions gave the US its first detailed information about Soviet military bases.
The Soviet Union knew about the American reconnaissance flights because it detected American spy planes on its radar. However, for nearly four years, the Soviet Union could not stop them, because the U-2 flew at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, so no Soviet missiles or planes could reach it.
However, in the spring of 1960, the Soviet Union developed the Zenith long-range surface-to-air missile. By May 1, 1960, this weapon had targeted the U-2 aircraft piloted by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers.
Shot down US spy plane
Flying at the edge of the atmosphere, Powers was on a top-secret mission to fly a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union to photograph military installations. If all went according to plan, Powers' nine-hour flight would take him from Pakistan to a landing point in Norway.
However, unlike previous flights, this mission failed.
As Powers flew over Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg, Russia), a Soviet air-to-surface missile exploded near the U-2. A second missile hit the plane Powers was flying and sent it plummeting. The pilot ejected, but Powers was captured as soon as his parachute touched down.
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| Pilot Francis Gary Powers. |
America insisted on denying, the Soviet Union figured it out
On May 5, Soviet leader Khrushchev announced that his country's military had shot down an American spy plane, but he did not mention capturing the pilot.
Eisenhower administration officials believed that no evidence would survive the crash and claimed that it was simply a weather-gathering plane that had accidentally veered off course.
Soviet leaders quickly released a photo of the captured pilot along with evidence collected from the plane wreckage to show that it was a spy plane.
The incident occurred on the eve of a summit in Paris on May 14. The Eisenhower administration had to take responsibility and admit that its earlier statement was inaccurate. The US leader's admission did not save the conference.
The U-2 incident made the Soviet leader feel that he could no longer cooperate with the Americans, and just hours after the Paris conference began, Khrushchev left the meeting.
