U.S. rescues missing airman from Iranian mountains after fighter jet was shot down

The U.S. military and CIA coordinated on a daring mission that safely rescued the missing crew member of a fighter jet that was shot down over Iran, bringing to a close a dramatic and politically perilous moment in the war.

“WE GOT HIM!” President Donald Trump said in a post Sunday at 12:08 a.m. on Truth Social, describing the operation as one of the most “daring” search-and-rescue operations in U.S. history. All those involved in the rescue made it safely home. In a later post, Trump described the airman as a colonel who was “seriously wounded.”

The multiday operation gave Trump and the United States a win to celebrate after more than five weeks of war with Iran and avoided what could have been a military and political catastrophe. The U.S. military has piled up tactical successes in the conflict, without clarity about how the president, who campaigned on starting no new wars, will extricate the nation from a conflict that has killed 13 U.S. troops, wounded hundreds of others, and upended global markets.

The airman — a weapons system officer of the two-seater fighter aircraft — was hidden in a mountain crevice and missing for about two days as Iranian forces and militiamen drew near, sparking an elaborate rescue operation to get to him first, a senior administration official told the Washington Post.

The rescuers had to move fast to get to the airman, who was injured, as Iranian television broadcast a reward for his capture. Video showed Iranians combing over the mountainous terrain to find him, and U.S. helicopters sent to search for him were hit by ground fire.

To disrupt the hunt, the CIA launched a deception campaign to spread the word inside Iran that U.S. forces already had him and were moving him via the ground to exfiltrate him, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

While they confused the searchers, the CIA located the airman and shared the location data with the military and White House, the official said, and Trump ordered the extraction mission. “This was the ultimate ‘needle in the haystack,’” the administration official said.

In a Sunday morning post, Trump said the officer was rescued from “deep inside the mountains of Iran” as the Iranian military “was looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close.”

Iranian media on Sunday broadcast footage of what appeared to be the charred wreckage of U.S. military aircraft on an austere airstrip used in the operation. Video showed what appeared to be the remains of at least one plane and an MH-6 helicopter, raising the likelihood that U.S. forces destroyed aircraft involved rather let them fall into Iranian hands.

As Trump celebrated the rescue on social media, other senior U.S. officials remained tight-lipped about the operation. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team did not respond to questions Saturday night or Sunday morning, instead amplifying White House messages on his social media accounts. One of them, in all capital letters, stated: “GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”

The intense search-and-rescue operation launched on Friday after the Air Force F-15E jet crashed and both crew members ejected. The pilot was quickly found and recovered alive, triggering an extensive mission to locate the weapons officer that involved dozens of aircraft, Trump said, along with Special Operations troops and other personnel trained to operate in dangerous environments to rescue fellow service members.

The mission was high-risk, with U.S. C-130s and rescue helicopters flying low and slow over Iran’s mountainous terrain to locate the missing airman. As the search was ongoing and Iranian television broadcast a statement offering a reward for the recovery of the downed crew members, another broadcast called on residents to “target” any Americans they found. IRIB, the state broadcaster, said on social media that “many people” had gone to the crash site and that the Iranian military had “called on the people NOT TO LET anyone mistreat the pilot.”

Around the same time that the fighter jet was shot down on Friday, an A-10 Thunderbolt II attack plane was struck by incoming fire from Iran. Before ejecting, the pilot was able to get the aircraft to Kuwaiti airspace and was also rescued Friday.

In addition, two of the rescue helicopters that had been searching for the missing F-15 crew member took ground fire from Iran during the operation. Some of the service members on board were injured, but all returned safely to base, U.S. officials earlier told the Post. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The incident marked the first known instance of an American crewed aircraft being brought down inside hostile territory since the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran began five weeks ago.

Combat search-and-rescue operations are some of the riskiest missions carried out by the U.S. military. Aircrews and recovery personnel are on constant standby for such operations, which involve rushing into rapidly evolving and chaotic environments.