Press Clipping - Nature of U-2 Crash

This AP report from London outlines the conflicting accounts of how the American U-2 spy plane crashed over Soviet territory.

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15 N POWERS LONDON (AP)-THE L'ONDON DAILY WORKER TODAY SAID AMERICAN PILOT FRANCIS POWERS++SHOT DOWN OVER RUSSIAN TERRITORY MAY -SURVIVED BECAUSE THE SOVIET ROCKET EXPLODED BENEATH THE TAIL OF HIS JET PLANE. THE POWERF UL J57 JET ENGINE OF THE LOCKKEED U2 POWERS WAS FLYING THUS SHIELDED HIM FROM THE FULL BLAST OF THE EXPLOSION, THE BRITISH COMMUNIST PARTY PAPER SAID IN A DISPATCH FROM MOSCOW. DOUBTS HAD BEEN EXPRESSED IN AMERICAN OFFICIAL CIRCLES THAT THE PLANE HAD BEEN SHOT DOWN BY A ROCKET AT ALL, MOST EXPERTS SAYING THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN LITTLE LEFT OF THE CRAFT OR THE PILOT IF IT HAD BEEN. DOUBTS ALSO WERE EXPRESSED ABOUT THE SOVIET REPORT THAT THE PLANE WAS HIT AT OVER 60,000 FEET ALTITUDE BECAUSE POWERS REPORTEDLY PARACHUTED DOWN WITHOUT INJURY. U. S. EXPERTS, INCLUDING THE PLANE'S DESIGNER, DOUBTED THE RUSSIANS COULD HAVE SALVAGED THE FILMS THEY KAVE BEEN SHOWING AS POWERS' WORK HAD THE PLANE FALLEN FROM SUCK HIGH ALTITUDE. WE 948 AED 5/13