U.S. Military Aircraft Goes Down in Iran, Launching Hunt for Airmen

(SeaPRwire) –   A U.S. fighter jet went down in Iran on Friday, sparking a competition between U.S. rescue efforts for the two-person crew and Iranian officials urging local citizens to locate them before U.S. forces do. 

Per Axios and CBS News, which cited anonymous U.S. officials, one crew member from the two-person F-15E has been rescued by U.S. forces, while the search for the other crew member is ongoing.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump has received a briefing on the crash. While U.S. officials have informed media outlets that the aircraft was shot down, the precise details of the crash remain unknown. The Pentagon has not yet verified whether the jet was downed or the exact condition of those on board.

The Washington Post reported that in a separate incident on Friday, an A-10 attack aircraft was struck by enemy fire within Iran; the pilot managed to fly into Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting and being rescued.

These incidents occur amid political strain for President Donald Trump, who is grappling with high gasoline prices, a stock market slump, and falling approval ratings linked to his conflict with Iran. During a prime-time speech on Wednesday evening, Trump announced his intention to keep attacking Iran for another two to three weeks to further weaken its ballistic missile program and delay its nuclear weapon development capabilities. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has maintained in recent days that the U.S. has gained sufficient air dominance over Iran to allow its aircraft to bomb the country without restriction. Should it be confirmed that Iran downed the jet, the incident would highlight that Iran can still strike back even amid heavy U.S. attacks.

Iran asserts it downed U.S. fighter jet

In a Friday morning statement on the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) asserted it had downed an American “fighter jet in central Iran’s skies using the Guards’ new advanced aerospace defense system.” The statement incorrectly identified the downed jet as an F-35 and did not specify the time or location of the downing or crash. 

“The fighter jet was fully destroyed and crashed… due to its disintegration, there is no information on the pilot’s fate,” the statement continued. 

Wreckage images shared by Iranian state media and examined by aviation experts suggest the aircraft was a U.S. Air Force F-15E.  

The IRGC has frequently made untrue claims about downing U.S. fighter jets, but this marked the first time it posted images on one of its X accounts purporting to show a fighter jet’s ejector seat—said to have been found by local residents.

Shortly after, reports from semi-official Iranian news outlets documented extensive U.S. aircraft and helicopter activity in the mountainous southwestern provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, as well as Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. Footage showed what looked like HC-130 planes and HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters conducting search and rescue operations in the two provinces, occasionally flying at very low altitudes.

These aircraft types are utilized by Air Force Special Warfare Pararescue units—elite special operations teams trained to enter enemy territory to rescue downed pilots and crew. TIME independently verified the reports originating from Iran, which are not directly available in the U.S.

The low-altitude daytime flights raised concerns among local residents that a U.S. airborne military operation might be underway. Videos shared online by semi-official news agencies showed locals firing rifles and hunting guns at the aircraft.

Iran changes orders from shoot-on-sight to capturing U.S. crew members

Iranian officials initially told anyone near the crash site to shoot any American pilot or crew member on sight. Local state TV first released a police bulletin asking residents to “target the pilot or pilots on sight,” but the bulletin was quickly revised to “inform police and authorities on sight.”

Subsequently, official directives changed again, informing locals that a reward would be given for capturing any American military personnel found—likely to use a U.S. service member as leverage in war-ending negotiations. Official announcements offered “a valuable reward to anyone who arrests and delivers the enemy pilot or pilots alive.”

Although the official reward amount was not made public, local merchants and industrialists quickly offered sums between $60,000 and $100,000 for turning over the U.S. crew. Provincial officials promptly issued notices asking residents to “search for the downed enemy fighter pilot,” and promising that “those who succeed in arresting or eliminating the hostile enemy forces will receive special recognition from the provincial governor.”

The counties targeted for searches by Iranian officials are in a sparsely populated area of the Zagros Mountains, with an average elevation exceeding 2,000 meters above sea level. 

Iranian authorities wasted no time using the downing for propaganda purposes. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament and part of the leadership Trump recently called “more reasonable,” mocked the U.S. on X. His post read: “This brilliant no-strategy war they launched has now been reduced from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can someone find our pilots? Please?’”

In early March, three F-15s were accidentally downed by U.S. ally Kuwait; the pilots of those jets ejected safely.

Since the launch of Operation Epic Fury—the Trump administration’s name for its operations against Iran—13 U.S. service members have lost their lives. Six died in an air refueling plane crash in Iraq, and seven were killed in Iranian attacks.