US Rescues Downed Pilot as Iran Says He Was Safer on its Territory

The US said on Sunday (April 5, 2026) that it had rescued an American airman, who went missing inside Iran after his F-15E combat jet was downed by Iranian missiles last week.

US President Donald Trump said the American warrior was extricated, though observers saw the effort as a dramatic firefight between the US rescue team and the Iranian forces on the ground.

After two pilots on board the downed F-15E ejected from the crashing aircraft, their fate hung in the balance as both the US rescue effort and Iranian forces were racing for two days to get to them first.

The US wanted to rescue the pilots before Iran captured them, tilting the direction of the five-week war in the Gulf region to the disadvantage of Trump. The rescue of the two downed pilots now provides Trump with the leverage to pursue any strategy he had in mind vis-à-vis Iran.

If Iran had captured the pilots, it would have delivered a significant blow to Trump, even as he got the US military to pummel Iranian territory, taking out some of its top political and military leaders and critical energy and nuclear infrastructure.

The F-15E, piloted and weapons managed by two US Air Force personnel, was flying over southern Iran when it was shot down by an Iranian missile on Friday (April 3).

Iran had claimed then that its “new advanced air defence system” had taken out the fighter jet, though the US had previously claimed it had destroyed the air defence facility. Tehran said the shooting down of the US jet proved its air defence system remained effective.

This was the first time in the five-week war that an American fighter aircraft was shot down, though previous combat jet casualties were due to friendly fire over Kuwait. This was also the first time since the 2003 Iraq war that the US had lost a fighter jet to enemy air defence fire.

The US immediately launched a rescue operation for the two downed pilots. While one of the two pilots was located hours after the crash and brought back to base safely, the fate of the second pilot, a colonel-ranked weapons system officer, was not known due to the different hilly terrain on which he had ejected.

When the first pilot was being rescued, at least one of the Black Hawk helicopters involved in the mission came under fire and was hit by enemy fire. But the chopper managed to remain airborne and completed the rescue mission.

The second pilot, Trump confirmed on Sunday (April 5), was “seriously wounded” when he was found and picked up from inside Iran’s mountains.

“This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment’. It just doesn’t happen! The second raid came after the first one, where we rescued the pilot in broad daylight, also unusual, spending seven hours over Iran,” he said in a Truth Social post.

Meanwhile, Iranian embassies in Pakistan and South Africa issued strong statements over the downed American F-15E pilots. The embassies posted the messages on their social media handles.

Addressing the mother of one of the pilots, the two Iranian embassies said the pilots would be at a higher risk under Trump’s administration, whereas they would be much “safer” under Iranian custody.

“Be sure your sons are more in danger with DJ Trump than in custody in Iran. Pray he’s kept captive by Iran rather than found by US rescue teams!” their messages read.

The Iranian messaging was clear: Tehran would treat its war prisoners with dignity and respect, while Trump’s war would mean the pilots would be in danger.

“Please keep the two F-15 pilots who were shot down in your prayers tonight. One of my sons is a fighter pilot, and I still haven’t heard any news from him or his unit,” the mother of one of the two pilots had posted on social media earlier.