Revealed On 6 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump has introduced that the US army has rescued a lacking American fighter jet crew member in Iran.
The Air Pressure officer went lacking in a distant a part of Iran after the downing of his F-15 jet on Friday. Its two crew members ejected from the aircraft. The pilot was shortly rescued by US forces, however a search needed to be launched for the F-15’s weapons methods officer.
In a Fact Social publish on Sunday, Trump wrote that the US had rescued the second “significantly wounded, and actually courageous” airman from “deep contained in the mountains of Iran”. It was reported {that a} firefight between US and Iranian forces happened in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province earlier than the rescue. Iran has not confirmed this, nevertheless.
Right here is how the difficult rescue mission unfolded:
What has Trump stated in regards to the rescue?
Whereas the id of the rescued airman has not been made public, Trump referred to him as “a extremely revered Colonel”.
He added that the kind of rescue mission that recovered him “is seldom tried due to the hazard to ‘man and gear’”.
Trump stated two raids had taken place, and the pilot was rescued in “broad daylight” through the second raid. It’s unclear when exactly the pilot was rescued. The US president wrote that the rescue was “uncommon, spending seven hours over Iran”.
In his publish, Trump stated he would discuss extra in regards to the rescue mission throughout a information convention with the US army within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on Monday at 1pm (17:00 GMT).
Trump wrote on Fact Social: “This courageous Warrior was behind enemy traces within the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who have been getting nearer and nearer by the hour, however was by no means really alone as a result of his Commander in Chief, Secretary of Conflict, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, and fellow Warfighters have been monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.”
Trump added that he had ordered dozens of plane carrying “deadly weapons” to be despatched to retrieve the airman, who had managed to evade Iranian forces for 2 days.
How did the search unfold?
On Friday morning, the US confirmed that an F-15E Strike Eagle had been shot down over southern Iran. The F-15 is a tactical fighter jet utilized by the US Air Pressure that first flew in 1972. Fashionable variants of the jet value greater than $90m every.
State media shops in Iran confirmed pictures of what they stated was wreckage from the F-15 and what seemed to be an ejection seat with an hooked up parachute.
Trump steered that the US knew the placement of the aircraft’s second airman and was monitoring him because the rescue mission unfolded.
Iran was additionally racing to find the airman. Tehran referred to as on the general public handy over the soldier to the authorities in what seemed to be an effort to safe an American prisoner of conflict.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Sunday that Iranian forces had additionally destroyed two C-130 plane and two Black Hawk helicopters through the operation to rescue the US airman in southern Isfahan province.
What do we all know in regards to the two C-130 planes that Iran says it destroyed?
The C-130 Hercules and the newer C-130J Tremendous Hercules variant have been developed by the US weapons producer Lockheed Martin. They’re army transport plane primarily used for tactical airlifts, troop transport and medical evacuations.
The Wall Road Journal reported that every C-130 prices greater than $100m.
The newspaper stated in a report on Sunday that the US blew up the C-130 jets on the bottom through the rescue operation, quoting an unnamed particular person acquainted with the matter. This unnamed official didn’t clarify how the jets have been downed through the rescue operation however informed the outlet that it was essential to destroy them to make sure they didn’t fall into enemy arms.
Has the US misplaced different army belongings or personnel?
Sure. This battle has killed 13 US service members and wounded greater than 300, the US army’s Central Command stated, however no US troopers have been taken prisoner by Iran.
Because the begin of the conflict on February 28, the US has misplaced three F-15 fighter jets in what it stated was a pleasant fireplace incident over Kuwait. A US army refuelling plane additionally went down over Iraq final month, killing all six crew members.
In accordance with the US army, the final US fighter jet to be shot down by enemy fireplace earlier than the F-15 on Friday was an A-10 Thunderbolt II through the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Not less than one Black Hawk helicopter was hit through the preliminary rescue operation, US officers stated, nevertheless it managed to remain airborne.
An A-10 Warthog plane was additionally hit close to the Strait of Hormuz a short while after the F-15E on Friday, however its pilot was capable of eject earlier than the aircraft crashed and was subsequently rescued. Iranian media reported this plane was hit by Iran’s defence methods.
Iran has not but confirmed {that a} firefight happened earlier than the F-15 airman’s rescue. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, stated a firefight appeared to have occurred in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province and 9 folks have been reported to have been killed in “strikes” there though it was unclear if this was associated to the US rescue mission.
