American plane shot down by Iran: how do pilots train to survive in enemy territory?

An American aviator is still being sought in Iran after his F-15 fighter jet was shot down by the Iranian military. While crew members receive training to survive in enemy territory, such an operation requires constant vigilance.

Published on April 4, 2026 at 17:17, with an estimated reading time of 5 minutes.

A new race against time for Washington and Tehran. As airstrikes continue in the Middle East, the United States and Iran are searching for one of the crew members of the American F-15E fighter jet that was shot down by the Iranian military on Friday, April 3.

“If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and turn them over to the police and armed forces, you will receive a generous reward,” said a journalist from an Iranian state media outlet. If captured, the American crew member might be used as a bargaining chip or worse. However, U.S. Air Force soldiers are specifically trained to survive in hostile territory. What does this training entail?

Survival in enemy territory is “an essential aspect of aviators’ training,” noted retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, a military analyst. This preparation has a name: SERE – which stands for “Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion.” The goal for the pilot and weapon systems officer is to find a way to escape and avoid capture, the former officer added.

First, the pilot must check if they were not injured by the shooting, ejection seat, or landing. “Imagine: you’ve just landed on the ground after parachuting, and you think to yourself, ‘My God, I was in a fighter jet two minutes ago, flying at 800 km/h, and a missile just exploded literally 5 meters from my head,'” recounted retired Brigadier General Houston Cantwell. During ejection, the pilot experiences “an acceleration of up to 50 G,” noted former French Navy aviator Xavier Tytelman, who also underwent such training.

“If the person is capable of moving,” they must understand their location, explained Houston Cantwell, now an expert at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Getting your bearings during the parachute descent is crucial to avoid heading towards an enemy military base once on the ground. From there, “what you are trying to do is avoid being captured by the enemy for as long as possible,” and thus hide until a potential rescue.

An ejected aviator only has “water, survival gear, communication equipment, a radio” to help them be found, as well as a firearm, enumerates Houston Cantwell. Water, in particular, is crucial: “You can survive without food for a moment, but you need water every day.” To be recovered by allies, they must find an accessible location, like a rooftop in the city or a clearing in the forest. To avoid being spotted by adversaries, Cantwell recalls a rule: “If I move, I will try to do it at night.”

Houston Cantwell asserts that during military operations like the one in Iran, each branch of the U.S. military keeps specialized troops on alert to extract pilots in enemy territory. As a pilot, this “gives you immense peace of mind because you know they will do everything they can to come pick you up,” noted the former colonel.

American pilot Scott O’Grady experienced this situation in 1995. When his F-16 was shot down by Bosnian Serbs, he managed to hide in a thicket after parachuting. Using a sponge to collect moisture to drink, he survived on grass and ants. After six days of isolation, guided by his radio signal, a heliborne commando of around forty marines descended, shielded from the Serbs by morning mist. Rescued, Scott O’Grady was hailed a hero at the White House a few days later.

His story inspired the film “Behind Enemy Lines,” released in France in January 2002.

But even with all the training in the world, it is difficult to last long alone in hostile territory with so little equipment. “Most crew members are trained to survive for only a few days,” noted Cedric Leighton for CNN. When asked what would happen if the aviator being sought was injured, Donald Trump refused to comment: “I cannot comment on that, because we hope it will not happen.”