Overview
- The F-15E, which went down Friday over southwestern Iran, left two crew ejecting as U.S. special forces recovered one and kept searching for the other.
- Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said its air defenses downed the jet and state TV asked residents to help find survivors, with Iranian reports citing a $60,000 bounty.
- Videos verified by major outlets showed a C-130 transport with helicopters flying low over Khuzestan in a rescue sweep as CENTCOM withheld detailed comment.
- Iranian outlets called the aircraft an F-35, but U.S. officials and imagery analysts pointed to wreckage consistent with a two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle.
- The loss would be the first manned U.S. jet downed over Iranian territory in this conflict, a moment that raises the risk of a captured airman and further escalation as the White House said President Trump was briefed.