A US pilot was rescued yesterday after their fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran, with one crew member still missing.
Iran and the US are now racing to find the F-15 airman, a weapons systems officer, with Tehran offering a reward for their capture.
A second aircraft, an A-10 Warthog, was reportedly hit by Iranian fire as it joined the search and rescue mission for the first, with the pilot successfully recovered.
Pre-mission preparations
Pilots deployed to the war in Iran were prepared and briefed in advance about the possibility of their planes being downed, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
One British former fighter jet instructor, who preferred not to be named, said that the pilot would have been drilled extensively on the possibility of the jet being shot down.
Air personnel undertake regular exercises to simulate the scenario, including spending a week being hunted and then interrogated for between 24 and 48 hours, they said. The training is similar for the UK and US, with Nato standard procedures in place for all alliance members.
An image purportedly showing the F-15 fighter jet shot down over Iran, supplied by Iranian state media via Reuters (Photo: IRNAProvider via Reuters)“We will practice this for every environment and every scenario,” he said.
They will also recap key lessons just before setting off for the mission. “It’s not something we trained for six months ago. You will be tested on all your immediate actions before you walk to the jet for that mission,” he said.
The former RAF personnel – who has undertaken drills as the pilot dropped from the jet and now evading capture – said the crew will be equipped with a range of kit to “facilitate your survival” and to help them communicate with rescuers, like encrypted radios, flares and mirrors.
Pilots eject
There have been conflicting reports about the precise time that the jet was shot down, but CBS News reported that it occurred early afternoon local time.
The pilots would be trained to eject from the jet when it comes under fire. F15 fighter jets use a specialised version of the classic ACES II ejection seat which is found on numerous US fighter aircraft. The seat includes an emergency beacon transponder and rescue kit.
While one pilot has been rescued, it is not yet clear if both crew members ejected in time.
Fleeing the area – and making contact with rescuers
When they land, they will first try to get as far away from the crash site as possible, the former airman said.
“Those first few minutes on the ground are probably the most stressful, because you’ve had the shock of being shot down. You’ll have had a sort of last position of where you were. You know broadly, but you’ve no idea where you’ve landed,” he told The i Paper.
“You’ve then got to probably get away from the crash site as quickly as you possibly can. You’ve got a big luminous parachute on the ground, an ejection seat, there’ll probably be a smoking hole where the jet is, and that’s going to attract a lot of attention.”
They will then work to establish communications with their team using an encrypted radio.
“The best opportunity to establish comms is in those first few minutes, because… you know there are other aircraft in the area,” he said.
An image purportedly showing the F-15 fighter jet shot down over Iran, supplied by Iranian state media via Reuters (Photo: IRNAProvider via Reuters)If they believe their rescuers are nearby, the soldier has around six different methodologies for attracting attention, including smoke flares, visual light flares, infrared communications and encrypted radios.
However, you would only use these “at the last second” when you are confident the rescue aircraft could see you – or you could reveal your position to the enemy.
“The biggest challenge is evading any contact on the ground, but doing your damnedest to try and establish comms with the rescue mission,” he said.
“I’ve played the role of the guy on the ground in exercises. You’re there, hidden under a hedge or in a ditch, watching the aircraft circling over. But you can’t see what they see, 20,000 feet up, because they’re trying to cover huge swathes of land. So talking to them is quite a complex procedure and can be quite frustrating.”
Escape and evade
If they can’t make contact, the pilot will then switch to “escape and evasion mode”, where they focus on getting rid of anything that’s going to give their identity away.
Thomas Newdick, a military aviation specialist at The War Zone, said the pilots would turn to their ‘Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape’ (SERE) training, which is obligatory for all US military pilots and aircrew and teaches them to survive in harsh conditions and avoid capture.
The US Air Force offers its troops 15 days of intensive SERE training, which includes building fires, purifying water, constructing shelters, and finding food in various climates.
Personnel are taught to learn to move undetected through hostile territory, navigate unknown terrain, and utilise tools to help them escape, such as hidden compasses or maps.
Newdick said the “rigorous” training should prepare them to survive undercover, including in hostile environments, for extended periods of time.
An F-15E Strike Eagle taking off for a training sortie at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, on August 22, 2025 (Photo: Master Sgt. Alexandre Montes / US Air Force/ AFP via Getty Images)They are also given advice on how to resist interrogation if they are caught, and instructed that the only information they must give to interrogators is their name, rank, and serial number.
“That’s a key part of fighter pilot training, or any kind of combat pilot training,” Newdick told The i Paper.
“It would have been part of the understanding for any mission over Iranian airspace, the potential that they would have to bang out [eject] and wait to get picked up.”
Newdick said they would be armed with automatic weapons so they would “have some possibility to fight their way out of situations if they needed to”.
Fighter jet crashes unusual – but not unprecedented
While it is unusual for US fighter aircraft to be shot down, it has occurred, including at least two incidents during this war.
At the start of March, three F15 fighter jets were shot down by Kuwaiti air defences in an apparent friendly fire incident. All six crew members ejected safely and were recovered.
On 12 March, a US military refuelling aircraft was lost in western Iraq, killing all six crew members in circumstances that are currently under investigation.
In 2011, two US servicemen had to eject from their F-15E fighter jet over Libya due to an apparent mechanical failure. Both servicemen were recovered safely and only had minor injuries.
During the Iraq war, two US servicemen were killed in April 2003 when a US F-15E Strike Eagle was downed.
The next day, a US A-10 Thunderbolt II was shot down by what was believed to be a surface-to-air missile in Baghdad. The pilot was able to eject safely before the aircraft crashed.
Rescue begins
Once a crash is detected, the Air Force will rapidly develop a rescue plan and a “pickup package” to be deployed, the former fighter jet instructor said.
It is not yet clear when this was launched or which capabilities were involved, but two helicopters were spotted flying alongside a plane in Khuzestan province shortly after the crash, with suggestions they fit the profile for the equipment used in rescue missions.
A rescue mission is “very high risk”, the British former aircrew said. “You have to put people in harm’s way to get that person out.”
A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II, also known as the Warthog, departs after receiving fuel in the skies near the border of Iowa and Missouri on July 7, 2020 (Photo: US Air Force/AFP via Getty Images)An American A-10 plane, believed to have been part of the rescue crew searching for the F-15 team, was hit in Iran shortly after the first incident.
These aircraft are the primary choice to lead such missions because they are well protected – “like flying a tank” – and have air-to-ground munitions which means they can target people on land if needed, the airman said. They will be supported by helicopters to carry out the extraction.
There will also be a command and control platform, such as an E3 aircraft, coordinating all of the assets involved and directing the mission.
Pilot is picked up – or supported on the ground
When the downed pilot is detected, there are several options to recover them depending on the landscape and threat.
When a pilot was shot down in the Kosovo war, a team was dropped in to join the pilot and evaded capture as a group for around five days until they were extracted together, because it was a populous area with a high risk of further attacks on aircrew, the former airman said.
However, Iran is largely open terrain, so they may be able to land the helicopter, onboard the downed pilot, and escape airspace to bring them home.
“It is one of the most complex missions that you will do,” he said.
Additional reporting by Alessandra Barrow.
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