Part of this CIA released mission plot of Black Shield Mission BX-6705, flown by Jack Layton on June 20, 1967, was censored. This is unique because no other mission plots in the same document were censored. The question is why.
I remembered the Oxcart Story mentioned that “on some mission profiles it might be forced during its turn to intrude into Chinese airspace.” I guessed Layton must have violated Chinese airspace when he made the sharp turn from heading 340 degrees to about 210 degrees after completing the first pass.
Although the hand-drawn mission track in this figure is poorly legible, the A-12 was on the Chinese border before it completed the turn to proceed to AR1 (1st aerial refueling). So it is very likely that the US government censored the first figure to avoid political embarrassment.