Latest details on daring mission to rescue U.S. airman from Iran after fighter jet shot down

A wounded U.S. Air Force colonel lay hidden in a mountain crevice in Iran's Zagros range for nearly 48 hours while Iranian state television broadcast reward offers and nomadic tribesmen scoured the surrounding terrain. The CIA was already running a deception campaign to keep Tehran looking in the wrong direction.

The colonel, identified by President Trump only as a "highly respected" Weapons System Officer (WSO), was one of two crew members aboard an F-15E Strike Eagle assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, when Iranian air defenses brought the jet down on the night of April 3 during a mission over southwestern Iran. The pilot was recovered within hours. The WSO was not, and the White House deliberately withheld news of that first rescue to avoid compromising the search for the second.

Iran claimed the jet was destroyed by a new advanced air defense system it asserted remained operational. The shoot-down was the first confirmed loss of a U.S. fighter jet to enemy fire in more than two decades; retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell noted the last such loss was an A-10 Thunderbolt II during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Iranian state television urged residents in the mountainous southwest to report any "enemy pilot" to police, offering roughly $60,000. Bakhtiari tribesmen, experienced in Zagros terrain, organized search parties, and BBC-verified footage showed some firing on U.S. rescue helicopters. Trump confirmed U.S. forces tracked the airman's position "24 hours a day."

The CIA's deception operation proved decisive. The agency spread disinformation inside Iran that the WSO had already been recovered and was being moved on the ground toward exfiltration. That misdirection, combined with what officials described as "unique capabilities," eventually pinpointed the colonel to a crevice in the rock. A senior administration official described the find as "the ultimate needle in a haystack but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA's capabilities."

Once coordinates were confirmed, Trump ordered an immediate extraction. U.S. forces established a temporary forward arming and refueling point at an abandoned airport in southern Isfahan province, then assembled a multi-branch rescue package: HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters, HC-130J Combat King planes, fighters flying top cover, and surveillance drones. The operation required approximately seven hours over Iranian territory in broad daylight.

The mission was costly. Iranian fire struck a U.S. Black Hawk during the first attempt, wounding crew members, though it remained airworthy. Two C-130 Hercules transports became stuck on the ground and were intentionally destroyed to prevent capture. Iran reported three IRGC members killed in the fighting.

Trump announced the outcome in the early hours of Sunday via Truth Social: "WE GOT HIM!" He called the WSO "seriously wounded" but expected to recover, and declared the dual rescues "the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory."

Retired Col. Joe Buccino, a former CENTCOM official, credited the WSO's survival training. "That officer has gone through intensive training to get to a secure location that's away from the population," Buccino said. "They know how to do this."

The rescue came on day 37 of Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran launched February 28. U.S. Central Command confirmed strikes continued inside Iran after the recovery. Iran threatened to escalate attacks on oil and civilian infrastructure, while Trump separately issued a 48-hour deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning of strikes on Iranian power plants if the waterway remained closed. A White House news conference was expected Monday.