‘Safe and sound’: How a U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Was Rescued From a Mountain Crevice

AUnited States Air Force member who was missing behind enemy lines for more than 24 hours after his F-15E fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday has been rescued, President Donald Trump announced early Sunday morning.

“WE GOT HIM!” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight. “The U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Trump wrote.

The F-15E jet was shot down over southwestern Iran on Friday, according to multiple U.S. officials’ accounts of the incident, causing the pilot and the weapons systems officer (WSO) to eject. The pilot was rescued soon after, but the second airman—whom Trump described as a “highly respected Colonel”—spent more than 24 hours evading capture in the mountainous region.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote. “This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory.”

The F-15E was the first U.S. military aircraft to be shot down inside Iran since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack that killed the country’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and more than 100 school children in a single day. U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says 3,531 people have been killed by U.S.-Israeli bombing in Iran so far in the war, and that 1,607 of that number were civilians, including at least 244 ‌children. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.

Another U.S. warplane, an A-10 Warthog, also crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. According to Fox News, the Warthog was providing covering fire for rescue teams searching for the pilot. The Iranian military said its air defenses brought down the A-10 and released a video that it claimed showed the aircraft being shot down, but U.S. officials have not said what caused the A-10 to crash. Two rescue helicopters were also hit on Friday during the operation to locate the missing airman.

Iran’s state TV aired a video on Sunday of what it claimed were two American helicopters and a transport plane shot down by the country’s military during the rescue operation for the second F-15 airman. U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up the planes after they suffered a malfunction.

TIME reached out for comment from the Pentagon, the Department of Defense and the White House.

Hiding in a mountain crevice
According to accounts given by U.S. officials to various outlets, the airman used his mandatory Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training to evade capture for a day and a half. A defense official told Axios that the pilot and the airman “were spread apart by a couple miles” with “hundreds” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) soldiers “everywhere.”

The rescue operation involved hundreds of special forces troops and military personnel, as well as dozens of U.S. warplanes and helicopters. The operation was done at night after the U.S. had established a temporary base in Iran, the defense official told Axios. Israel shared intelligence about the situation on the ground, the official said. Israeli officials told Axios that the Israeli Air Force carried out one strike to block Iranian forces from reaching the area.

“They have been good partners. They have been great and brave people. We are like a big brother and little brother,” Trump told Axios.

After the crash landing, the colonel hiked up a 7,000-foot mountain ridgeline and hid in a crevice. While evading capture, he activated an emergency beacon, which allowed U.S. forces to locate him, two U.S. officials told Fox News. A military official told the New York Times that the airman’s signaling was intermittent.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was at the center of the operation, launching a deception campaign to throw Iranian officials off, according to Axios. It said CIA operatives spread a false campaign within Iran that both crew members of the downed F-15 jet had already been found and that U.S. forces were working on exfiltration, trying to confuse Iranian officials who were also working to capture the officer.

Trump told Axios that U.S. officials initially suspected the airman might be in Iranian captivity and “sending false signals” to create a trap. The airman had sent a short radio message that said “God is good,” a defense official told Axios. (Trump told the outlet the message said “Power be to God” and that “what he said on the radio sounded like something a Muslim would say.”)

The CIA used special technology to locate the airman and determine that it was him, an official told the Times.

The CIA also reportedly facilitated an “unconventional assisted recovery,” a process in which the agency contacts civilians willing to aid or shelter U.S. military forces, Axios reported.

While the airman was hiding in the mountains, IRGC said it was searching the area near where the pilot’s plane came down, and Iranian officials issued a public plea for locals to find the crew member, offering a reward of $60,000.

Videos posted online showed locals from the area where the jet went down forming search parties to find the airman. According to the Times, U.S. aircraft dropped bombs on convoys that approached the area where the airman was hiding.

When the airman was found, he was taken to two MC-130J aircraft that were waiting nearby to exfiltrate him out of the country. But the aircraft malfunctioned, which led to U.S. forces destroying the two disabled planes and four helicopters, the Times reported. The commandos and injured airman were eventually reloaded onto three replacement aircraft, according to the Times.