An American pilot was rescued Friday after a U.S. fighter jet was downed in Iran, military sources said, while the status of a second crew member was not immediately clear.
Sources told The Associated Press the pilot is alive and receiving medical attention. Separately, a second U.S. aircraft reportedly went down in the region and its lone pilot was rescued.
The two incidents Friday underscored the immense dangers facing U.S. troops as they carry out a war against a battered but still capable enemy. American troops raced to locate the second crew member believed to be on the ground inside Iran.
In an interview with The Independent, President Trump was asked what could happen if Iran captures a U.S. service member.
“Well, I can’t comment on it because — we hope that’s not going to happen,” Mr. Trump said.
Iran claimed to have shot down the American F-15E fighter jet and asked for the Iranian public’s help to find the crew, while U.S. forces mounted an intensive rescue operation to find the personnel before they were captured. It’s the first time a U.S. aircraft has been shot down over enemy territory since the early days of the Iraq war in 2003.
SEE ALSO: Nearly 50 senior Iranian officials have been killed in the war. Just who are they?
U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Times.
Video footage circulating across social media Friday purports to show U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and other aircraft flying over Iran as part of the rescue mission, though that footage could not be independently confirmed as genuine. A local channel of Iranian state television said the aircraft’s pilot ejected over southwestern Iran.
Iran state-run media shared photos of what they claimed to be pieces of the downed jet. Some military analysts said those pieces seem to indicate the plane is an F-15E Strike Eagle with the Air Force’s 494th Fighter Squadron, based at Britain’s RAF Lakenheath base.
The downing of the plane could mark a turning point in the conflict.
A search-and-rescue operation in Iran could open the door to more U.S. casualties, while the capture of an American service member by the Iranian government would immediately change dynamics both on the ground in the Mideast and in Washington.
With the whereabouts of a second crew member unknown, those risks remain.
It’s possible that Iran may have used foreign-made equipment, such as the Russian-made S-300 missile system, to target the American plane. That would introduce another layer of geopolitical complexity and tension to the situation.
Friday’s apparent downing of a U.S. fighter jet is the first such incident in the campaign against Iran. In the early days of the conflict, Kuwaiti air defenses mistakenly shot down three American fighter jets in a friendly fire incident. None of the crew was killed.
The anchor on the Iranian state media channel read the following announcement on Friday: “If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize.”
An on-screen crawl separately urged the public to “shoot them if you see them,” referring to social media footage circulating of what appeared to be U.S. aircraft in the area.
The channel provided no other immediate details.
The New York Times reported that the second downed aircraft was an A-10 Warthog attack plane, which went down near the Strait of Hormuz. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Iranian forces shot down that plane.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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