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I hope this is the right forum to ask this... Does anyone know where Gary Powers crashed? I read in a lonely planet guidebook that it was near Ekaterinberg; I've been spending a lot of time there lately and am looking for excursions to keep myself amused- I've had all the trips round the Church of the Blood I can take for a little while at least.
(Edited for grammar, 2 weeks late. I can only apologise)
Last edited by CarltonBrowne the FO : 25th August 2008 at 14:17.
Gary Powers crashed near Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) as correctly mentioned above. Ekaterinburg was the original name of the city, in the Czar days, and recoverd its original name after the end of the USSR. xxx His accident in Sherman Oaks, California was off a school located at the corner of the streets as mentioned above as well. He was flying "Chopper 4" - a Bell 206 Jet Ranger operating for KNBC-TV Station Channel 4 in Los Angeles. While returning from filming the fires in the Santa Barbara area, and trying to make it back on time for the evening news, he ran out of fuel, and crashed while attempting to avoid to crash on the school grounds (although empty at that hour of the late afternoon). His cameraman was killed as well. xxx I had a couple of beers with Gary and some of his buddies in the pilot hangout bar of Van Nuys airport. The U-2 incident was never mentioned with him around, and as a matter of fact, he introduced himself as "Francis" rather than "Gary"... The only conversation I had with him was about the transition as pilot of fixed-wing to helicopters, which I was thinking about doing myself. Gary Powers had done that training a mere few weeks before his accident, and certainly a highly competent fixed-pilot, however his experience with helicopters was somewhat limited. xxx I knew the "guys" in Van Nuys thanks to my then girlfriend, Holly Douglas, who was the grand-daughter of Donald Douglas, and herself had been pilot of the KNBC-TV helicopter flown by Gary. She had lost her contract and had been replaced by Gary, so there was a bit of tension between them if present together in the bar, Holly was highly experienced as Jet Ranger pilot and instructor... so I guess I am relaying "her opinion"... My apologies... xxx Well, is old history anyway... all that was in the mid-1970s... Happy contrails anyways, both Gary and Holly are no longer with us.
Thanks everyone. OK West Coast, I should have been more specific in my question, maybe I'll look at the second site another time. Rafair, good advice- I want to make the layover interesting, but that would be just that bit too interesting!
Location: inside the train looking onto the platform.
Posts: 187
Gary Powers Museum exhibit
There is a museum in Ekaterinburg that has bits of the missile and bits of the aircraft in it, went last year but cant remember the exact location, it has a few russian vehicles outside and is otherwise quite drole.
Are the women still wearing high heels with everything, there is also a strip club nearby that was much more interesting and held my attention muck longer.
Next time you are in Washington DC check out the aeronautical museum, upstairs there is a wonderful display on Powers. Its from the US perspective of course, nevertheless, its very interesting. Overall a fantastic museum
IIRC his name was Francis Gary Powers, for some reason his wife called him Gary, so while he was with the Russians that's what the American media called him as well.
There has been loads of speculation as to the cause of the "downing".
Did anyone see a doumentary last year (I think) where the theory was that a SAM nailed one of the Russian pursuit aircraft, and flying through the resulting debris, brought down the U-2?
CIA document declassified in 1998. CIA Debriefing of Francis Gary Powers, February 13, 1962. The document put to rest the story circulating at the time that Powers had descended to a lower level when hit.
F Gary Powers also co wrote a memoir titled.... Operation Overflight.. A Memoir of the U2 Incident. quite an interesting read,i think i got it from a library years ago.
For 36 years, the official story of the U-2 incident was that the spy plane had been shot down by one of a salvo of fourteen Soviet SA-2 rockets. This story originated with Oleg Penkovsky a GRU agent who spied for the CIA. In recent years, however, new information emerged which differed substantially from the official version.
In 1996, Soviet pilot Captain Igor Mentyukov revealed that, at 65,000 feet (19,812 meters) altitude, under orders to ram the intruder, he had managed to catch the U-2 in the slipstream of his unarmed Sukhoi Su-9, causing the U-2 to flip over and break its wings. The salvo of rockets had indeed scored a hit, downing a pursuing MiG-19, not the U-2. Mentyukov said that if a rocket had hit the U-2, its pilot would not have lived.
Though the normal Su-9 service ceiling was 55,000 feet (16,760 meters), Mentyukov's aircraft had been modified to achieve higher altitudes, having its weapons removed. With no weapons, the only attack option open to him was ramming.
In 2000, Sergei Khrushchev wrote about the experience of his father, Nikita Khrushchev, in the incident. He described how Mentyukov attempted but missed intercepting the U-2, failing even to gain visual contact. Major Mikhail Voronov, in control of a battery of anti-aircraft missiles, fired three SA-2s at the radar contact but only one ignited. It quickly rose toward the target and exploded in the air behind the U-2 but near enough to violently shake the aircraft, tearing off its long wings. At a lower altitude, Powers climbed out of the falling fuselage and parachuted to the ground. Uncertainty about the initial shootdown success resulted in thirteen further anti-aircraft missiles being fired by neighboring batteries, but the later rockets only hit a pursuing MiG-19 piloted by Sr. Lt. Sergei Safronov, mortally wounding him. Sergei Safronov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner
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