Pilot Dies When Spy Plane Crashes After Takeoff
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BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — A U-2 spy plane crashed Monday and its pilot was killed after he ejected following takeoff on a training mission here.
The pilot, Capt. Richard Schneider, 32, of South Weymouth, Mass., was pronounced dead about 35 minutes after the crash, Air Force officials said.
The aircraft exploded in a field about 200 yards off the base’s main runway, Air Force spokesman Mike DiGiordano said.
Beale Air Force Base, about 40 miles north of Sacramento, is the home base for the Air Force’s U-2 fleet.
The U-2 is a single-engine, single-seat reconnaissance jet. The planes have been used to spy on global hot spots for more than four decades.
The world’s attention focused on the U-2 in 1960, when pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union.
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