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To: Ilaine who wrote (121453)	6/22/2005 11:48:54 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793743

U.S. Spy Plane on Afghanistan Mission Crashes, Killing Pilot By TERENCE NEILAN Published: June 22, 2005 An Air Force U-2 spy plane has crashed in Southwest Asia, killing the pilot, the military said today. A short statement said the crash occurred at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday as the plane completed a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the name given to American military operations in Afghanistan. The pilot was not identified. The crash occurred as the plane was returning to base, according to the statement issued by the Central Command. The base was not identified, but military officials who have been briefed on the incident said it was returning to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. The location of the crash could not be disclosed "due to host-nation sensitivities," Capt. David W. Small of the Air Force, a spokesman for Central Command, told The Associated Press. The term Southwest Asia can be used by the military to include the Middle East. The cause of the crash is not known, today's statement said, but officials said Tuesday that there were no indications of hostile fire. An interim investigation board has been appointed, and a full board will continue to look into the incident, according to Col. Darryl Burke, commander of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, to which the pilot belonged. The U-2 is a single-seat, reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft than can fly at more than 70,000 feet. Once a closely held secret, its existence became public on May Day in 1960, when one of them, flown by Francis Gary Powers for the Central Intelligence Agency, was shot down over the Soviet Union - an incident that soured relations only days before an American-Soviet summit meeting in Paris. Others were later shot down, including one over Cuba during the missile crisis in 1962, and others have crashed, including one in England in 1995. But the U-2 and its updated versions have remained among the most effective and reliable means of gathering intelligence, increasing the reach of spy satellites. It was a U-2 that spotted the Soviet installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962, and they were used extensively during the first Gulf War to pinpoint Iraq's forces.