By Veronica Rocha
Los Angeles Times
The U.S. Air Force says one pilot was killed and one injured after they ejected from U-2 spy plane that crashed in Northern California.
The two pilots ejected from a U-2 spy plane Tuesday morning, moments before the aircraft crashed in a rural area north of Sacramento, California, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Few details were released about crash in Sutter Buttes, but the two pilots in the high-altitude, all-weather reconnaissance aircraft were ejected, said Air Force Capt. AnnMarie Annicelli.
The crash occurred shortly after takeoff and the pilots were participating in a training mission, according to the Air Force.
The ejected pilots were with the remnants of the aircraft late Tuesday morning and awaiting recovery in an isolated area, officials said.
The single-engine surveillance jet is from the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base and was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron.
According to the base’s website, the wing is “responsible for providing … timely, reliable, high-quality, high-altitude reconnaissance products.” The wing is equipped with U-2 planes as well as RQ-4 and MC-12 reconnaissance aircraft.
The last time a U-2 Dragon Lady crashed in the area was on Aug. 7, 1996, in Oroville.
In that incident, the spy plane crashed into a parking lot outside the offices of the Oroville Mercury Register, killing the pilot and a woman on the ground.
Capt. Randy Roby, an instructor assigned to Beale Air Force Base, was piloting the plane over the city on a routine mission when it burst into flames, then crashed.
Jerri Vering, of Oroville, was leaving the newspaper’s office and the plane’s wreckage hit and killed her.
The Beale air base is home to America’s fleet of high-altitude spy planes, and its motto is emblazoned on signs: “In God We Trust. All Others We Monitor.”
The U-2 flies to 70,000 feet — higher than any U.S. military aircraft. It’s also among the oldest. The spy plane was first designed during the Eisenhower administration to breach the Iron Curtain and, as engineers said, snap “picture postcards for Ike” of hidden military strongholds in the Soviet Union. There have been 33 updated versions of the jet that still flies today.
The U-2 is perhaps best known for the plane that was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the subsequent capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers. He was traded for a Soviet spy nearly two years later, but the embarrassing incident convinced U.S. officials that manned spy planes posed too many risks.
The military now relies more heavily on drones for reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering. The U-2 is set to be retired by 2019.
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