Oh Oh, the last time this happened was back in 1960 over the Soviet Union :eek:

U.S. spy plane crashes in southwest Asia

Wednesday, June 22, 2005; Posted: 2:29 a.m. EDT (06:29 GMT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. U-2 spy plane has crashed in southwest Asia, but the military has not disclosed the location of the crash or any of the circumstances.

The U.S. Air Force, in a short written statement, said the cause of the crash and the fate of the U-2 pilot was not known.

The U-2, a single-seat jet able to fly at high altitudes on surveillance missions, has been flown by the U.S. Air Force for over 50 years.

Officials said the plane went down Tuesday evening.<end>




Heres the link: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/22/spy.plane.crash/index.html

i thought they retired those things.

Nope - in fact they were recently updated with modern avionics and such things.

The worst has been confirmed...he is dead :(

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane involved in a mission in Afghanistan crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates, killing the pilot, the military said Wednesday.


U.S. Central Command said the crash occurred in "southwest Asia," a term that can be a substitute for the Middle East.

"The Airmen of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing mourn the loss of a true American hero in the service of his country," said Col. Darryl Burke, the unit's wing commander.

The wing has been based at the al-Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, since early 2002. The wing flies various types of aircraft, including aerial refueling tankers. It was visited in August by Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Burke appointed an interim investigation board to determine the cause of the crash. It was not clear when the results of the investigation would be completed.

The location of the crash could not be released "due to host nation sensitivities," U.S. Air Force Capt. David W. Small, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail when asked for more information.

In Washington, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the plane had completed a mission related to Operation Enduring Freedom and crashed while returning to its base.

A U.S. security team was at the site of the crash, he said.

The U-2 operates at an altitude of more than 70,000 feet, beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles. It has been used by American forces for decades.

In January 2003, a U-2 crashed in South Korea. The pilot ejected to safety, but four Koreans on the ground were injured.

A U-2 was shot down May 1, 1960, over Soviet territory while photographing Soviet missile installations. After parachuting to safety, pilot Francis Gary Powers was captured and later convicted as a spy. He was held for almost two years before being traded for a KGB captive <end>

he was probably on his way to pour some arsenic into the hospital water supply in Khandahar from 70,000 feet, thats waht the nazis would do

Originally posted by Travh20
he was probably on his way to pour some arsenic into the hospital water supply in Khandahar from 70,000 feet, thats waht the nazis would do

Take a pill

OK, I guess you have to be insane to call our military nazis who enjoy killing innocents, wheres the prozac?

It's suprising they still fly those things. They have to stall the engines to even land them.

Plus the pilot risks getting the bends from flying in a pressure suit at such altitude.

Originally posted by DrewM
It's suprising they still fly those things. They have to stall the engines to even land them.

They're notoriously hard to land. You can't really stall a jet engine, though. There is such a thing as compressor stall, but it's not really something you can induce as a pilot. Maybe they have to stall the wings?

Originally posted by DrewM
Plus the pilot risks getting the bends from flying in a pressure suit at such altitude.

I thought the pressure suits maintained sea level pressure while they're at altitude, thus making the body feel as if it hasn't changed altitude at all?

If the plane was going from Afghanistan to the UAE, and didn't crash in either of those countries, then it most probably crashed in Iran. If so, we might have a situation on our hands. And if the pilot had survived and been taken prisoner by the Iranians, we would have had quite a mess to deal with.

It crashed in the UAE!

You're right, innocent,

The plane crashed on approach to the runway.

Originally posted by LionelHutz
They're notoriously hard to land. You can't really stall a jet engine, though. There is such a thing as compressor stall, but it's not really something you can induce as a pilot. Maybe they have to stall the wings?

I thought the pressure suits maintained sea level pressure while they're at altitude, thus making the body feel as if it hasn't changed altitude at all?

I read the engine stall thing someplace but I don't know much about jet engines.

On the pressure suits - they work with pressure but not equivalent to sea level - more like around 10,000 feet or so. The pilots also have to breathe pure Oxygen. The suit has to adjust for changes in altitude - it's this that tends to cause the bends - washout of nitrogen from the body.