Search for U.S. Fighter Pilot Over Iran Enters Second Day

The frantic effort to locate a missing American weapons systems officer entered its second day Saturday, with U.S. forces combing a mountainous stretch of Iran's southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad while Iranian authorities called on local residents to hand over the "enemy pilot" in exchange for a reward.

Iranian forces claimed they struck down two American aircraft: an F-15E Strike Eagle over the southwest part of the country, and an A-10 attack plane near the Strait of Hormuz. The F-15E is a two-seat aircraft, flown by a pilot and a weapons systems officer. One crew member was rescued; the search for the second, the weapons systems officer, continued.

An A-10 Warthog was part of the search and rescue mission when it took fire and was damaged. The Warthog's pilot ejected over the Persian Gulf and was successfully recovered. Two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search and rescue effort were also struck by Iranian fire, though the service members aboard were unharmed.

The governor of Iran's Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province offered a bounty to local civilians. "Dear and honourable people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus," he said. Regional Iranian officials, meanwhile, denied reports that the missing American crew member had already been found and detained.

Israel cancelled planned strikes in Iran to avoid hampering the search and rescue efforts, and provided intelligence to help the U.S. locate the missing crew member. Iranian state television told citizens that anyone who located U.S. troops would be rewarded by the government.

The Pentagon said little publicly. In an email obtained by the Associated Press, the military confirmed it received notification of "an aircraft being shot down" in the Middle East, without further details. The Pentagon separately notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of the second service member was not known. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that President Trump had been briefed on the situation.

Bryan Stern, a U.S. special forces veteran who founded a company specializing in rescuing people from conflict zones, described the operation as deeply hazardous. "It's not as simple as flying a helicopter in, get on the radio, talk to the pilot. It's not like TV," Stern said. "Getting aircraft in is very dangerous." He cited video that appeared to show Iranian police officers shooting at a pair of helicopters flying at low altitude over southwestern Iran.

It was the first time the United States lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the war, now in its sixth week. The conflict could mark a new turning point in the campaign. Three F-15Es were previously shot down in a friendly fire incident earlier in the conflict, but the last time a U.S. fighter jet was shot down by enemy fire before this week was an A-10 Thunderbolt II during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.