The Flights Go On

This time the U.S. was ready for the Russian screams before they came. The pilot of a U-2 reconnaissance plane, returning from a mission, reported that his plane had strayed over the fortified Russian island of Sakhalin, off the Siberian coast and reaching down to within 26 miles of Japan. Word was swiftly passed to Washington--and, with the warning in hand, it was barely 3 1/2 hours after the inevitable Russian protest note arrived that the U.S. reply was written, approved by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and President Kennedy, and delivered to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.

The Soviet note was accurate right down to the detail that the U-2 had been over Sakhalin for nine minutes. The U.S. reply acknowledged that "an unintentional violation may have taken place." It went on to reaffirm the U.S. ban--set by President Eisenhower after the Francis Gary Powers flight in May 1960 and continued by President Kennedy--against flights over Russian territory.

That ban is real. But it does not prevent high-altitude U.S. reconnaissance planes from flying within peeping distance --generally about 100 miles--of Russian borders. Nor does it include a pledge to refrain from flying over Communist nations other than Russia, including Red China.

The U-2 can reach altitudes over 90,000 ft. with electronic gear to spy out defenses from far away, plus equipment to collect airborne radioactivity from Soviet nuclear tests. But the crowded U-2 carries few sophisticated navigational aids, and, to complicate the pilot's task, the plane, because of its gliderlike design, is easily blown off course. These factors forced the Air Force pilot to veer over Sakhalin.

At the time, he was collecting air samples and trying to get an electronic reading on the heavy Soviet defenses on the island. As a result of the Sakhalin overflight, the U.S. is considering such precautionary steps as increasing the U2's navigational gear and limiting flights to good weather to avoid chances of error. But there are no plans to ground the U-2 altogether--its probing flights are considered vital to U.S. security.

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