Iran Shoots Down F-15E Over Khuzestan, One Crew Member Still Missing

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle over Iran's Khuzestan Province on Saturday, making it the first American warplane destroyed by Iranian fire in the conflict and shattering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's repeated public insistence that the United States held unchallenged air dominance over Iran.

The F-15E belonged to the 494th Fighter Squadron, a unit normally stationed at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom that had been forward-deployed to Jordan under U.S. Central Command as the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. The Boeing-built twin-seater, a dual-role aircraft that first saw combat during Desert Storm in 1991, carries a crew of two: a pilot and a weapons systems officer. Both ejected. U.S. forces recovered the pilot; the weapons systems officer remains missing.

The search for that second airman turned the day's crisis into something far more volatile. A U.S. aircraft dispatched to support the search-and-rescue operation was struck by Iranian fire, forcing its pilot to eject. Two search-and-rescue helicopters were also hit by Iranian fire, injuring crew members before both aircraft returned to base. American forces searched for hours using Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules. Every phase of the recovery effort drew fire from inside Iranian territory, confronting CENTCOM planners with the precise scenario combat search-and-rescue doctrine treats as worst-case: sustained hostile action against rescue assets in denied airspace.

The stakes of finding the weapons systems officer were raised further by events on the ground. A regional Iranian governor offered a bounty for the crew's capture. Iranian state television broadcast calls urging civilians to "shoot them as soon as you see them" upon spotting U.S. personnel. Unconfirmed reports circulating online claimed one airman had already been taken by a group calling itself the Sons of Haidar al-Karrar, an Iranian-affiliated militia. If confirmed, it would mark the war's first American prisoner of war.

Iranian state media initially identified the downed aircraft as an F-35 stealth fighter, a claim that collapsed when wreckage photographs surfaced showing tail markings, including a distinctive red tail flash, consistent with the 494th Fighter Squadron's F-15E. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of Iran's parliament, was less interested in accuracy than in mockery. Posting on X, he described the U.S. campaign as a "no-strategy war" that had devolved from talk of regime change to a search for missing pilots, then added: "What incredible progress. Absolute genius."

Saturday's losses extended beyond the F-15E. An A-10 attack aircraft was also downed by hostile fire on the same day, bringing the total number of U.S. warplanes lost to enemy action in a single day to two. Three additional F-15Es had previously been destroyed during the conflict, though those losses were attributed to friendly fire. A U.S. F-35 pilot suffered shrapnel wounds in an earlier engagement. Thirteen Americans have been killed during the campaign in total.

The shootdown lands with particular weight on Hegseth, who has publicly and repeatedly declared the air war over Iran already won. Saturday's events, two aircraft downed in a day, a missing crew member, rescue helicopters taking fire, put that claim in direct conflict with the operational reality unfolding over Khuzestan.

Diplomatically, the incident arrives as the UN Security Council prepares to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution addressing transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while the White House simultaneously presses Congress for a large supplemental defense funding package. The outcome of the search for the missing weapons systems officer could reshape both conversations before either vote is called.