US forces successfully rescued the second crew member of a two-seat F-15E fighter jet that went down over Iran on Friday, according to two U.S. officials, NBC News reported late Saturday.
US President Donald Trump called the operation “an Easter miracle” in a text message to NBC News and commended US forces for their “strong, decisive” actions. “The Iranians thought they had him, but it wasn’t even close. And remember, we got two, but couldn’t talk about the first in that it would have highlighted that there was a second,” said Trump.
The rescue marked the successful recovery of both pilots, though the military initially kept the second rescue under wraps for operational security, NBC News noted.
Donald Trump had announced on Saturday that one of the pilots of an American fighter jet, shot down over Iranian airspace last Friday, has been successfully rescued.
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A frantic search-and-rescue operation was launched after the F-15 fighter crashed, while Iran reportedly offered a reward for the “enemy pilot.” Trump posted on social media that the pilot, missing since the crash, is injured but “will be okay” and had taken refuge “in the treacherous mountains of Iran.”
The operation reportedly involved “dozens of aircraft,” with US forces monitoring the pilot’s location “24 hours a day” and planning the rescue meticulously. This incident marks the first US aircraft shot down in Iranian territory since the conflict began on February 28.
The search focused on mountainous regions in the provinces of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad in southwestern Iran. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed to have shot down another US aircraft involved in the rescue mission.
Earlier, on Friday, the Iranian military reported it had shot down an American fighter jet, rescuing one of the two pilots. The plane crashed in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province. Iran also reported that a second U.S. A-10 fighter “went down in Gulf waters.”
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The New York Times, citing two US official sources, reported that the F-15 crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with the pilot successfully recovered.
