In 2012, the Air Force said it had spent $1.7 billion over eight years to modernize the aircraft with new flight and surveillance technology.
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The pilot who died in a U-2 spy plane crash Tuesday has been identified as Lt. Col. Ira S. Eadie.
The aircraft was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, part of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, where the U-2 fleet is based and its 33 planes are deployed to military detachments around the world.
The injured pilot was found by crews on ATV’s and taken to a hospital and is stable.
Air Force officials called it a routine training mission.
Another pilot who remains unidentified was injured in the accident, but sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the statement.
The second pilot on board the U-2 when it crashed has not been identified but is expected to recover.
But she could not discuss what caused one pilot to die in Tuesday’s incident.
Barnes says military investigators are looking into the cause of the crash, but there’s no timeline for them to conclude their probe.
“Care for those security force personnel and also care for the the investigation team”, said Barnes. Photos show smoke billowing from the scene and wreckage strewn across the crash site near the Sutter Buttes mountain range. The crash sparked a fire on the grassy terrain, which was quickly extinguished.
The U-2 “Dragon Lady” flies at extremely high altitudes to capture images, radio signals and other information useful to intelligence officers and battlefield commanders.
Pilots wear pressurized suits like those used by astronauts to survive in the low-pressure, low-oxygen environment in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
One day after the U-2 went down in the Sutter Buttes, the Air Force began a hard investigation as it mourned the loss of a pilot.
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The U-2 is widely known as the most hard aircraft in the world to fly. Powers was imprisoned for two years before being released in a prisoner exchange. The Soviet Union shot down a U-2 and captured pilot Frances Gary Powers in 1960.
