U.S. Warplanes Under Fire as Search for Missing Pilot Drags On [WATCH]

The aircraft is believed to have gone down Friday in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in southwestern Iran near the Iraq border, according to The New York Times.

Both crew members reportedly ejected before the crash.

One pilot was located and recovered within hours and was receiving medical treatment, while efforts to locate the second pilot remained ongoing as of early Saturday local time.

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Iranian officials issued a public call for civilians to assist in capturing the missing pilot, offering a reward for information leading to their capture.

Retired Marine combat pilot Capt. Ron Alvarado said the timing of the incident could work in the United States’ favor due to superior nighttime capabilities.

“We own the night,” Alvarado said.

“Hopefully, he or she will be rescued by morning.”

By early Saturday, there were no confirmed updates on the missing pilot’s condition or location.

According to Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, the F-15E is equipped with an emergency locator beacon included in its survival kit, which can be activated either automatically or manually, potentially aiding recovery efforts.

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The rescue mission drew additional attacks from Iranian forces. U.S. officials said multiple aircraft involved in the operation came under fire as crews responded to the downed jet.

A second U.S. fighter aircraft was also struck during operations in the Persian Gulf region, leading to a crash.

The pilot safely ejected and was recovered, according to U.S. officials.

An A-10 Thunderbolt, commonly known as a Warthog, reached Kuwaiti airspace before its pilot ejected and the aircraft went down, an official told NBC News.

Two U.S. military helicopters participating in the rescue effort were also hit by Iranian fire.

While some crew members were injured, all personnel survived and the helicopters returned safely to base, according to a U.S. official cited by NBC News and reporting from The Washington Post.

The F-15E is the first U.S. aircraft confirmed shot down over Iran during Operation Epic Fury, a military campaign involving U.S. and Israeli strikes targeting Iranian assets.

The operation has entered its sixth week, with approximately 20,000 strikes carried out during the conflict.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the shootdown, stating that its “newly developed and advanced air defenses” brought down the jet, which it said was “completely destroyed and crashed,” according to Tehran’s Press TV.

A photograph circulating online appeared to show one of the aircraft’s ejection seats.

A local Iranian state television anchor encouraged civilians to assist in capturing the American pilots.

“If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize,” the anchor said, according to the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump, speaking in a brief interview with NBC News on Friday, declined to provide details about the search operation but said the attacks would not alter broader military or diplomatic efforts.

“No, not at all. No, it’s war,” Trump said. “We’re in war.”

Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have both pointed to the scale of U.S. operations against Iran in recent weeks.

Hegseth said earlier in the conflict that the United States was “establishing total dominance over the skies we fly over and seas we fly over.”

In a primetime address Wednesday, Trump said his administration was “on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly.”

U.S. officials have reported that more than 90% of Iran’s missile and drone capabilities have been eliminated during the conflict. At the same time, Trump has not ruled out deploying American ground forces.

Iranian officials responded to the developments by criticizing U.S. strategy. Parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X that the U.S. “no-strategy war … has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”

Additional losses have been reported during the conflict. A U.S. F-35A was damaged during a mission over Iran on March 19, and 16 MQ-9 drones have been shot down.

Three American F-15 fighter jets were also downed over Kuwait in a friendly fire incident.

Hegseth said during a Pentagon news conference that the six crew members involved in that incident had “never left the theater” and returned to conduct strikes on Tehran.

Pentagon data indicates that 365 U.S. service members have been wounded since the start of the conflict, with 13 confirmed fatalities.

It remains unclear whether the most recent incidents have been included in those figures.

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