Plane shot down in Iran: what we know about the missing American pilot

Iran and US in race to find missing pilot after planes shot down

Iran and the United States have been in a race against time since Friday, April 3, to locate one of the two occupants of the first American plane to crash on Iranian territory since the beginning of the war, an F-15E two-seater.

In total, two American fighter jets, a two-seater F-15E in Iran and an A-10 Warthog above Kuwait, were shot down by Iranian forces on Friday. The second pilot of the F-15 and the pilot of the A-10 were rescued by the Americans.

Pilot found

A rescue operation was launched by the American army to recover the crew of the downed aircraft. Several American media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, and CBS, reported, citing sources close to the matter or unidentified American and Israeli officials, that one of the two pilots of the aircraft had been rescued by American forces. However, no official source has confirmed this at this stage.

Read also: Iran: Have the Revolutionary Guards already taken power?

The Iranian state television broadcast images that it described as those of the downed American plane. The Iranian military described the downed plane as an F-35, a single-seater. But according to William Goodhind, an image analyst at Contested Ground interviewed by Reuters, the images showing presumed debris of the downed aircraft circulated on social media correspond to those of an F-15E. CNN, which analyzed the images broadcast by the Iranian state television showing, among other things, an ejection seat on the ground, confirms that the model appears to correspond to an F-15.

Another pilot still missing

Search operations to find the missing American crew member are still ongoing on Saturday, according to a regional Iranian official quoted by the Iranian media outlet Nournews.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared that they were combing through an area near where the plane crashed in southwest Iran, while a reward was offered to anyone who captured the survivors before the first pilot was found. Two American Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search for the missing pilot were targeted by Iranian fire, according to two American officials speaking to Reuters. These search operations also involved a low-flying refueling aircraft, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph.

Turning point in the conflict?

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a former army helicopter pilot who lost both legs and partial use of her right arm when a rocket hit her Black Hawk helicopter during the Iraq war, issued a statement advocating for the recovery of the missing American pilot, as reported by The New York Times. “As someone shot down behind enemy lines, my thoughts are with the crew members and their loved ones waiting for answers,” she said on social media. “It’s a relief that a soldier has been found and rescued, and I am grateful to those who risk their lives to search for the one who is still missing.”

The White House stated on Friday that Donald Trump had been “kept informed” of the situation but did not provide details on the next steps of operations. The US president was unable to say what the response would be if the missing crew member of the downed aircraft were to be injured or captured, according to The Independent. “I hope that doesn’t happen,” he said. The destruction of an American fighter jet will not affect discussions to end the nearly month-long conflict with Iran, the American president also stated after a brief phone call with the American television network NBC News.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf mocked the focus on a pilot hunt in a message on social media.

Read also: “Our goals in Iran are almost achieved”: behind Donald Trump’s self-satisfaction, a very contrasting assessment

According to US Central Command, 13 American soldiers have died since the beginning of the conflict, and 300 others have been injured. These losses, highlighted by Iranian propaganda, underscore the risks that American and Israeli aircraft still face despite the firepower deployed by both countries in the region since the start of the war. The prospect of a possible capture of an American pilot by Iranian forces could weigh heavily on the political dynamics in the United States, where the conflict is disapproved of by a large majority of the public.