Authorities have identified the pilot who died Tuesday when he and another pilot were forced to eject from a U-2 spy plane shortly before it crashed in Northern California on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Air Force said.
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The crash happened in the Sutter Buttes around 9:30 a.m. and may have sparked a wildfire in the area.
The United States Air Force released the name of the pilot who died in the U-2 test flight crash on Tuesday.
The injured pilot was found by crews on ATV’s and taken to a hospital and is stable.
“What I am most proud of is that our airmen are trained to respond to emergencies, and I’m proud of how they responded”, Barnes said.
This marks for the first crash of this nature in over 20 years.
The incident is still under investigation.
The U-2 Dragon Lady is a Cold War-era surveillance plane based at Beale. This crash comes 20 years after another U-2 plane from the same air force base crashed into the vehicle park of the Oroville Mercury Register in August 1996.
The last time a Lockheed U-2 crashed in the area was on August 7, 1996, in Oroville, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Eadie was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, California.
Witnesses said they spotted three parachutes – two with men, and one carrying some kind of equipment.
(U.S. Air Force via AP).
The glider-like U-2, part of the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron based at Beale, came down… Jerri Vering, of Oroville, was leaving the newspaper’s office, and the plane’s wreckage hit and killed her.
Beale, which houses 4,500 military personnel, is home to the nation’s fleet of single-seat U-2 aircrafts and the similar double-seat model used for training pilots.
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The American pilot, Francis Gary Powers, spent 21 months in a Moscow prison.
