U-2 Pilot Takes Along Poison After Delays and Change of Planes

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000500100011-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: April 21, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 9/O/2$ ,,q",RP,8? 471 0005001 011-5
2 1 APR 1970
Operation Overflight
U-2 Pilot Takes Along Poison
M'er Delays and Chang of Planes
}}i{{t in a Series)
~' Bj : S GARY POWERS
The main reason we had
never tried to fly all the way
across the Soviet Union was not
fuel but logistics.
no about in urr n-
y. I tossed the wallet into the
rauel.ng bang u,iH, .tie
With a refueling stop at Bah-
loafing relieved some of the
tension built up by the two false
starts. But not all. For I also
discovered that I wouldn't be
flying the plane I'd hoped.
Previously all the overflights
had returned to their origina-
ting base. Taking off from one
base and landing at another re-
q u i r e d two ground crews,
doubling personnel, preparation
and risk of ex
osure
p
. I bringing the U-2 over and leav-' check. Flying back and forth
But it was considered worth I ing it at Peshawar until the, from Turkey to Pakistan, time
the gamble. The planned route I
?ould take us deeper into Rus flight took place, we were to- Ion the plane I'd counted on fly-
-
t
d
sia than we had ever gone, ing something new. Chiefly for
while traversing important tar-, security, to reduce plane ex-
gets never before photograph pnsure, we are ferrying it to
Accommodations at Pesh-
folding cots and cooked our own good idea. Periodically, after althis time I chose to take it.'
CPYRGHT
1.11M Ulat Litt -- . " "'
flight on Saturday. A night of jab, and death would he almost
poised and ;~T _ _..d instantaneous. As a weaDnn, it
"O.K., " I replied. ' Sh?itnn
tossed it to me, and I slipped it
into the pocket of my, outer
flight suit.
Though with more than sur-
ed. , Peshawar the night prior to night U-2 numbet 360'was flown
Our commanding officer was, flight. Then, should the flight over. it was a "dog," never
Air Force Col. William M. Shel rot take place as scheduled, for having flown exactly right.
ion. Shelton handled the brief d-eather or some other reason,
_ Something was always going
ings for the flight. conducted at,
Incirlik Air Force Base intwe would ferry it back to In-1 wrong. No sooner was one mal-
th r
e
h
southern Turkey prior to our
leaving for Pakistan,
Taking off from Peshawar,
Pakistan. I was to overfly Af-
ghanistan and cross the Hindu
cirlik.
It was the best plane we had,
which was comforting. Aside
from the long layoff. and the
fact that this flight would be
Kush range, an extension of 'theI going all the way across Rus-
Himalayas.
Once in the Soviet Union, my
route would take me over or"
near Stalinabad, the Aral Sea;
t h e Tyuratam Cosmodrome
(Russia's Cape Canaveral),
Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Kirov,
Archangel, and, on the Kola
Peninsula, Kandalaksha and
Murmansk, from which I' was
to fly north to the Barents Sea
and along the northern coast of
Norway to Bodo. This way I
would avoid overflying Finland
and Sweden.
The flight would take nine
hours, cover approximately 3,-
800 miles, 2.900 within the' So-
viet Union itself. With an early-
morning takeoff, and consid-
ering the time changes, I would
be in Bodo about nightfall.
I was thinking about this as,
e a r l y on the morning of
Wednesday, April 27, I packed
a bag for the trip. Should I stay
in Bodo a day, or two, I'd need
a shaving kit, civilian clothes,
ID and money. Checking my
sPj;
ma nei mfftsg44
sia. there was nothing else to
distinguish this overflight from
its predecessots.
Yet because this was to be
the first flight all the way
across Russia. I felt an addi-
tional touch of excitement and
some apprehension. However,
my complete trust in the air-
craft helped.
Two Delays
The schedule called for a 6
noon I went to bed about four
o'clock. At 2 A.M. I was awak-
ened by l omeone from message
center. I had washed and was
! dressing when I received anoth-
er message; due to bad weath-
er, the flight had been post-
I
an a""
function corrected t
appeared. Its current idiosyn-
crasy' was one of the fuel,
tanks, which wouldn't feed all
its fuel. But not all the time,
me in. la,c''7u11 W63 .~.I,CUWCy
for 6 A.M. I completed by pre-
flight check and waited. - -
Finally Col. Shelton carpe out
to explain the delay. They were
awaiting approval from the
White House.
This was the first time this
had happened. When Presiden-
tial approval was necessary, it
usually came through well in
advance of the flight.
Fateful Date
At this point I was cute the
flight would he cancelrrl,' and
was looking forward to gr+fting
out of the sweat-drenched flight
suit, when at 6.20 A.M., the sig-
nal carne: cleared for takeoff.
At altitude, the temperature
outside the aircraft dropped to
60 degrees help wzero. Some of
the chill began to penetrate. Al-
though the suit would remain
d a nm p a n d uncomfortable
throughout the flight, at'least I
was no longer sweltering.
Switching on th, autopitnt. I
completed my flight Ing. I had
already filled in the Airrratt
Number, 360, and the Sorril
Number, 415A. Now I arld-d
takeoff time, 0126 Greenwich
Mean Time, 6.26 A.M. meal
time, with the notation "de-
layed one-half hour." I also,
filled in the date: "I May
1960."
NEXT: Time and a Soviet
rocket catch up with Operation
overflight.
fore I was to go tq bed,' word
.
run ou
ing ha
A 'Dog'
just occasionally. So the pilot
was kept guessing.
Saturday afternoon I again
went to heel early, to he awak-
ened at 3 A.M. With my backup
pilot, I had a' good substantial
breakfast - two or three eg;s;
bacon, toast. It was to be the
last fond I'd have until reaching
Norway, some 13 hours later..
As I was suiting up, I remem-
bered that traveling bag, with'
wallet and clothing, and asked
that it he put in the cockpit,
"Dn you want the. silver dnl?
lar?" Shelton asked. ' '
Before` this I hadn't wanted
the disguised poison pendant.
But this flight was different.
And I had less than complete
confidence in the plane.'
For A Weapon
"if something happenedi" t
had previously asked the in-
telligence officer, "could I use
the needle as a weapon"