EXTENSIVE SEARCH FOR MISSING U2

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31125, 30 July 1966, Page 15

EXTENSIVE SEARCH FOR MISSING U2

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, July 29.

An extensive search was under way today for a missing U2 spy plane believed to have been on a Cuban surveillance mission.

The pilot apparently lost consciousness—per- i haps through lack of oxygen at high altitude —and the plane continued flying on its automatic pilot until it ran out of fuel.

It could have come down anywhere on an 1800-mile course between Panama and the Peru-Chile border. The Defence Department said radio and radar reports showed the plane failed to make a turn when off the Florida coast and continued on a southerly course. A spokesman would not say

what its mission was but declared there had been no report of it having been shot down by Cuban guns. The plane, piloted by a 32-year-old Air Force captain, Robert D, Hickman, the father

of six children, took off from Barksdale Air Force base, Louisiana, yesterday on what the Defence Department called a “routine” mission for the Strategic Air Command. S.A.C. handles U2 flights over Cuba, some of which confirmed the presence of Russian missiles on the island in 1962.

High Altitude The Defence Department spokesman said the plane was flying at high altitude. The U2 is designed to fly at 90,000 ft to avoid interception or ground fire from conventional weapons. The search was under the direction of the United States Air Rescue Centre in the Panama Canal zone.

“Appropriate authorities of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile have been alerted," the spokesman said.