30-year-old pilot Francis Gary Powers was winging through the atmosphere at the edge of space over Soviet territory when suddenly a state-of-the-art surface-to-air missile took to the skies to take him down.
It was May 1 of 1960, and Powers was on a 9-hour reconnaissance mission to gather intelligence about Soviet military installations.
No enemy missile system had shot down a U-2 aircraft at those heights for the past 6 years, but the Soviets were on high alert and Powers had no way of escaping the imminent hit.
The incident would put the world's most powerful nations at the brink of war after the USSR discovered that the spy plane was gathering information for the CIA.
- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
24 фев 2022
