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His parachute opens automatically.

At 10,000 feet, the pilot looks down and sees rolling hills, a lake, a village, what could be American countryside.

But he's falling towards the Ural Mountains in Russia.

He remembers to take out the map in his pocket and tear it up, scattering the pieces like confetti. Then he takes

out what looks like a silver dollar, removes a poison suicide pill from inside it, and then decides

not to use it. He still has his 9mm pistol. As a CIA pilot, he's been taking surveillance

photographs in a U-2 spy plane.

It's the go-to aircraft for overflying enemy sites, especially missile development sites in the Soviet Union.

Flying at full altitude, 70,000 feet, the CIA thinks the U-2s can't be detected by radar, which is important because an unauthorized

incursion into another country's airspace would be considered an act of war.

But this U-2 has been spotted and shot down.

At 5,000 feet he can make out power lines, a forest, and as he falls fast towards the earth,

a tractor in two men. The men rush to help him as he slams to the ground.

It's May 1st, 1960. The CIA pilot is Francis Gary Powers.

The United States claims the aircraft was involved in weather research

until the Soviets recover the photographs of their military bases a few days later.

A furious cruise shift leaves a planned international summit in Paris before it's even begun.

The president at the time, Dwight Eisenhower, refuses to apologize for the U-2 spy plane program or stop the over-flights.

Later on, the pilot, Gary Powers is interrogated by the KGB and will spend two years in a Soviet prison.

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