A terrible race against time has started for Washington. As an American plane crashed on Iranian territory on Friday, April 3 – a first since the beginning of the war – Iran and the United States are engaged in a race on Saturday, April 4 to find one of the two occupants. The Iranian army had claimed to have shot down the aircraft, an F-15E fighter-bomber.
American media reports, on the other hand, state that one of the two aviators ejected in flight and was exfiltrated during a raid by special forces in southwest Iran, while the fate of the second remains unknown. Five weeks after the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28 against the Islamic Republic, which has caused thousands of deaths mostly in Iran and Lebanon, this is a serious setback for the American aviation.
Especially since the Iranian army claimed to have hit another American aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft, which then crashed in the Gulf. The New York Times had previously reported the crash of an American aircraft near the Strait of Hormuz, adding that only its pilot was rescued unharmed. After a long silence, the White House simply stated that President Donald Trump had “been informed” of the loss of an aircraft in southwestern Iran.
In an interview with NBC, President Donald Trump assured that this “doesn’t change anything at all” regarding the possibility of negotiations with Tehran to find a resolution to the conflict that is shaking the global economy. Since the beginning of the war, no American soldier has been killed or captured on Iranian soil, but 13 have died in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
The Pilot Must “Hide” while Hoping to be Exfiltrated
The F-15E was destroyed by a ballistic missile defense system of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, said a spokesperson for the Iranian armed forces. “Additional searches are underway,” he said. The New York Times and The Washington Post claim to have authenticated photos and videos circulating on social networks and in Iranian media showing American helicopters and aircraft flying at low altitudes in the area.
The Iranian state television station in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad region (southwest) broadcasted images presented as those of the wreckage, promising a “generous reward” for anyone who would deliver the pilots. Houston Cantwell, a former US Air Force pilot, explained to AFP that during operations like those carried out against Iran, special forces are kept on alert at all times to rescue pilots shot down in enemy territory.
“It provides great peace of mind to know that they will do everything possible to come and get you,” he said, but added: “at the same time, they will not embark on a suicide mission.” According to him, the priority for a pilot in this situation is “above all to hide” and find the best possible place to wait for extraction, such as a clearing or the roof of a building.
Meanwhile, Iran continues its missile and drone strikes against Israel and the Gulf monarchies, allies of the United States, in retaliation for attacks on its soil and in response to Donald Trump’s threats to ravage its infrastructure. Israel, on the other hand, once again bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, seen as a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement.
