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The U-2 Crisis of 1960 occurred when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. The incident worsened East-West relations during the Cold War and was a great embarrassment for the United States.

On May 1, 1960 (fifteen days before the scheduled opening of an East-West summit conference in Paris), a U.S. spy plane of the type Lockheed U-2 left Peshawar, Pakistan on a mission to photograph ICBM development sites in and around Sverdlovsk and Plesetsk in the Soviet Union. Attempts to intercept the plane by Soviet fighters failed due to the U-2's extreme altitude, but eventually one of the 14 SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles launched at the plane managed to get close enough. The aircraft was badly damaged, and crashed near Sverdlovsk, deep inside Soviet territory. The pilot, Gary PowersFrancis Gary Powers ( August 17, 1929 August 1, 1977) was the American pilot whose U-2 plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, thus causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960. After graduating from Milligan College in Eastern Tennessee, he enlisted in the USAF in, was captured after making a parachuteApollo 15 capsule landed safely despite a parachute failure. A parachute is a device used to slow the descent of a falling body or load. The word parachute comes from the French words para, protect or shield, and chute, to fall. Therefore parachute actual landingLanding is the last part of a flight where a flying animal or aircraft returns to the ground. Hitting the ground too hard is prevented by wings (including rotor wings), a parachute or rockets or a vertically directed jet engine; in the case of a balloon t.

Four days after Powers disappeared, NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA (established 1958) is the government agency responsible for the United States of America's space program and long-term general aerospace research. A civilian organization, it conducts (or oversees) re issued a very detailed press release noting that an aircraft had "gone missing" north of Turkey. The press release speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even claiming that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties." To bolster this, a U-2 plane was quickly painted in NASA colors and shown to the media. (see photo).

After hearing this, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev ( Russian: ) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) ( April 17, 1894 September 11, 1971) was a Soviet politician. Following a power struggle, he emerged as the leader of Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin: he was First announced to the Supreme SovietThe Supreme Soviet ( , Verhovniy Sovet literally the "Supreme Council") comprised the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments (and hence the world) that a "spyplane" had been shot down, whereupon the U.S. issued a statement claiming that it was a "weather research aircraft" which strayed into Soviet airspace after the pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen equipment" while flying over Turkey. The White House, presuming Powers was dead, gracefully acknowledged that this might be the same plane, but still proclaimed "there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been", and attempted to continue the facade by grounding all U-2 aircraft to check for "oxygen problems".

On May 7, Khrushchev dropped the bombshell:

I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well... and now just look how many silly things they (the Americans) have said.

Not only was Powers still alive, but his plane was essentially intact. The Soviets managed to recover the surveillance camera and even developed the photographs. Powers' survival pack, including 7500 roubles and jewelry for women, was also recovered.