CIA spy pilots and sharks

Of all the threats facing CIA pilots flying classified U-2 spy-plane missions at 70,000ft over Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, sharks were high on the list, according to new material revealed by the US intelligence agency. When Francis Gary Powers was shot down in 1960 by a Soviet surface-to-air missile while flying a secret surveillance operation over the Soviet Union, the CIA realised for the first time that the super-secret U-2s were no longer invulnerable to attack. That’s when the agency started thinking about sharks and the possibility that a CIA pilot shot down during the wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia might end up crash-landing on water. “While unlikely, the threat of shark attack was a very real and gruesome one for U-2 pilots conducting high-risk surveillance routes that would take them over miles and miles of shark-infested waters,” the CIA disclosed on its website. In 1968 the CIA placed an order for 50 shark screens. Dr Clarence Scott Johnson of the US naval undersea research and development centre devised a vacuum-packed bag, looking not unlike a giant condom which could fit inside a flight suit pocket. Made of a material like aluminium foil and coated in black polyester, the shark screen had an inflatable collar at the top. The pilot would unfurl the bag, climb into it, inflate the collar, then fill the bag with water, leaving just his head above the surface. The black colour was judged to put off sharks hunting for food. The low profile posture of the downed plot was also seen as effective protection from enemy combatants hunting for him. The shark screen was tested and from 1969 no CIA U-2 pilot flew off on a secret mission over Asia without one. There is no record of a U-2 pilot needing to use the protective screen in the line of duty. But US Navy experts acknowledged that the device proved to be “the most effective shark-deterrent yet tested”.