#u-2

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POWERS

London (AP)-The London Daily worker today said American pilot Francis Powers--shot down over Russian territory May 1-- survived because the Soviet rocket exploded beneath the tail of his jet plane.

The powerful J57 jet engine of the lockheed U2 powers was flying thus shielded him from the full blast of the explosion, the British communist party paper said in a dispatch from Moscow.

Plane had been shot down by a rocket at all, most experts saying there would have been little left of the craft or the pilot if it had been.

Doubts also were expressed about the Soviet report that the plane was hit at over 60,000 feet altitude because Powers reportedly parachuted down without injury. U.S. experts, including the plane's designer, doubted the Russians could have salvaged the films they have been showing as Powers' work had the plane fallen from such high altitude.