Posted on 06/21/2005 9:40:49 PM PDT by kristinn
WASHINGTON, June 21 - A U-2 spy plane crashed Tuesday night in Southwest Asia, the Defense Department announced, specifying an area where American aircraft support missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The crash is the first of a U-2 in that region. Military officials who have been briefed on the crash said early indications were that the plane crashed on landing at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, its home base. The were no indications of hostile fire, they said.
The cause of the crash and status of the pilot are not known, the Pentagon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If this plane is in China, I hope Bush wont wimp out like he did back in 2001, and go in and get the crew (alive or dead) and retrieve the tapes, and destroy the rest. Do not let anything fall into the hands of our Chinese enemy.
Anyone have a pic of the Aurora? ;-)
According to the article, the plane is reported to have crashed a long way from China.
I thought the U-2 is now called the TR-1.
If it is, I'm sad to report that the pilot's wife has reported that her husband's body has been recovered. If you were part of that prayer thread, could you please inform your ping lists and thank them for their prayers.
So sorry to hear this Texas Eagle.
Wow! Cool...
You should see what they replaced it with!
They fly out of Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. I know several of the pilots - they are brave souls.
Ping...
U2s have been revamped, up-engined and a wider camera bay added, Ronin.
Their classification is now TR-1.
Jack.
I just sent out an few emails to the guys I know in the 9th Recon unit.
I'll update the thread if/when I hear anything.
Prayers....
Dasher
In the 1990's the rumor was aurora was going to put these old spy planes out of business. Whatever happened to that project?
I saw one fly ( the SR-71 ) a few years ago at Edwards...
Wow!
They're incredible. I really hated to see them retired.
NASA still uses the SR-71 out of Edwards.
Or at least, they did until recently.
A friend of mine used to be a Flight Engineer on the SR-71 with NASA. She is the woman with the most supersonic time in world. Pretty cool distinction.
dd
The military idiot that is for retireing the U2 and/or Warthog.. should be pistol whipped and then fired.. and then kicked in the butt..
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