A spy plane crash in California killed one pilot and left a second pilot injured after a U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane crashed shortly after taking off Tuesday morning.
The plane crashed in Sutter County during a training mission, The Huffington Post noted.
Both pilots ejected from the aircraft. Initially, the Air Force reported that the pilots had "safely ejected" from the U-2, but just hours later a tweet was published by the air combat command, saying "There is no official confirmation of status of U-2 pilots," Los Angeles Times reported.
Sergeant Charity Barrett of Beale Air Force Base confirmed one pilot's death shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Times reported. However, at the time, the status of the injured pilot hadn't been made clear.
"There's always inherent dangers in an ejection. The technology is fantastic, but it's not foolproof," Col. Larry Broadwell, the base commander, told the media at a news conference after the crash. “I would match the safety and maintenance record of the U-2 with any of the apparatus the Air Force flies.”
According to Broadwell, there was nothing out of the ordinary about this particular “routine” flight.
“Everything about the flight today was routine — nothing out of the ordinary as I was told,” Broadwell said, according to the Times.
The crash is under investigation.
According to The Huffington Post, the aircraft was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp.
The U-2 is widely known for the plane that was shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union, leading to the capture of the pilot, Francis Gary Powers. The incident was seen as an embarrassment and it was the first time that U.S. officials were made aware of the risks posed by spy planes, Los Angeles Times noted.
The U-2 planes aren’t used nearly as much today. The military relies more on drones now as they plan on retiring the U-2 in 2019, the Times noted.
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