The operation ended a two-day search after an F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down in Iranian territory during the widening war.
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. forces rescued a second American airman in Iran early Sunday, nearly two days after an F-15E Strike Eagle was brought down, ending a high-risk recovery mission that unfolded in remote mountains as Iranian forces and civilians were urged to help find the missing crew member.
The rescue mattered well beyond the fate of one officer. It closed a politically fraught episode in the sixth week of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, denied Tehran a possible captive and underscored how dangerous the air campaign has become after the first confirmed loss of a U.S. aircraft to Iranian fire in the conflict. President Donald Trump quickly cast the mission as proof of U.S. military reach, while Iran used the same episode to argue that its air defenses and ground forces could still inflict losses.
The crisis began Friday when Iranian state media and U.S. officials reported that an American fighter aircraft had gone down over Iran. The aircraft was identified as an F-15E Strike Eagle, a two-seat warplane flown by a pilot and a weapons systems officer. One crew member was recovered soon afterward, but the second remained missing as American aircraft, drones and helicopters searched a rugged area in southwestern or central Iran. Iranian television carried appeals for residents to report any “enemy pilot,” and officials signaled that a reward would be offered for information leading to the airman’s capture. Trump said the first rescue happened in daylight, but the second was delayed while U.S. forces tried to fix the missing officer’s location and limit the chance that Iranian units would close in first. By early Sunday, U.S. special operations forces moved in overnight and extracted the second airman.
U.S. officials said the rescued officer was a colonel who served as the jet’s weapons systems officer and had been injured, though Trump said he was expected to recover. The administration did not immediately release the officer’s name, unit or exact medical condition. Officials also did not publicly identify the precise crash site, the altitude or direction of the flight, or the missile system or gun battery that brought the aircraft down. Those gaps remained important because they bear on whether Iran intercepted the jet through a prepared air-defense network or a more localized engagement. Trump described the recovery as one of the most daring search-and-rescue missions in U.S. history and said “dozens of aircraft” supported it. Reuters reported that at least one transport aircraft involved in the extraction had to be destroyed after it malfunctioned on the ground. Iranian media, meanwhile, claimed several American aircraft and helicopters were destroyed during the rescue effort, though those battlefield claims were not independently verified.
The episode marked a turning point in a war that began Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched strikes tied to Iran’s military and strategic infrastructure. Until Friday, Iranian claims of shooting down manned enemy aircraft during the conflict had largely not been borne out. This time, both major U.S. news agencies reported that an American aircraft was in fact lost inside Iran. The downing came after days of escalating regional attacks that had already hit energy sites, shipping routes and civilian infrastructure. Earlier Friday, Iran struck targets across the Gulf, including Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi refinery and a desalination plant, while alarms sounded elsewhere in the region. Oil markets had already been rattled by Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies. By the time the downed F-15E became public, the war had already killed more than 1,900 people in Iran, more than two dozen people in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 people in Israel and 13 U.S. service members, according to reporting compiled during the conflict.
What happened in the air and on the ground will now drive the next phase of the official response. The Pentagon had earlier notified lawmakers that a second service member from the downed fighter was unaccounted for, but the department had released little public detail while the rescue was under way. That silence reflected standard practice during an active recovery mission, especially one inside hostile territory. In the coming days, the Air Force and combatant commanders are expected to review the aircraft loss, the rescue timeline, the communications between the crew and recovery forces, and the performance of escort and support aircraft. Investigators will also examine why at least one U.S. aircraft used in the extraction was destroyed and whether enemy fire, mechanical trouble or terrain played the largest role in the complications. Trump, who has also threatened new strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, has signaled that he sees the rescue as a military and political success. Iran, by contrast, is likely to present the shootdown as evidence that it can still contest the skies and impose costs on Washington.
The scene that emerged from scattered public accounts was one of speed, fear and improvisation. Social media videos and television reports described American aircraft circling over a mountainous area while Iranian broadcasters urged residents to stay alert for the missing airman. Survival training almost certainly shaped the officer’s actions while he remained on the ground, with aircrews taught how to evade capture, conserve communications and wait for recovery teams in hostile territory. The terrain appears to have worked both ways, helping conceal the airman while also slowing the rescue force and narrowing safe landing options. Trump said no Americans were killed or wounded in the operation, though earlier reporting said two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the broader search had been hit by Iranian fire and escaped Iranian airspace. The differing accounts, along with Iranian claims of additional U.S. losses, reflected the fog of war around a mission carried out deep inside enemy territory and under intense pressure to avoid a hostage crisis.
The second airman’s recovery closes the immediate search, but it does not settle the larger questions raised by the shootdown. The U.S. military still must explain how the F-15E was lost, how close Iranian forces came to capturing the officer and whether the rescue signals a broader willingness to mount large-scale operations inside Iran even as the war expands. For now, both crew members are out of Iranian hands, and the next major milestone is expected to be a fuller Pentagon accounting of the crash, the rescue and any additional losses from the mission.
Author note: Last updated April 5, 2026.