Editorial use only Gary Powers testifying at Senate inquiry, 1962. US Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977), whose CIA U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace in May 1960, testifying at the Senate Armed Services Select Committee hearing. Powers is holding a model of the aeroplane he was flying when he was shot down over the Sverdlovsk region of Russia (then part of the USSR), leading to an international incident. He was convicted of espionage and held as a prisoner in the USSR for just over 21 months. He was released as part of a prisoner exchange. Debriefing by US intelligence and the Senate inquiry ultimately vindicated his actions during the mission. Photographed on 6 March 1962 by Warren K. Leffler.