Iran and the United States are in a race against time on Saturday, April 4 to locate the pilot of an American plane shot down by the Iranian defense.
Iran and the United States are engaged on Saturday, April 4 in a race to find one of the two occupants of the first American plane to crash on Iranian territory since the start of the war, which is now in its sixth week.
This crash in the southwest of the Islamic Republic is a serious setback for Washington, which has been boasting since the beginning of the war on February 28 that no American soldier has been killed or captured on Iranian soil. However, 13 have perished in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
The United States conducting searches
This aircraft, an F-15E, was destroyed by an anti-aircraft defense system of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological Iranian army, a spokesperson for the American armed forces said.
“Additional searches are underway,” he said. The New York Times and the Washington Post claim to have authenticated photos and videos circulating on social networks and in Iranian media, showing American helicopters and planes flying at low altitude over the area.
“They will do everything they can”
Houston Cantwell, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, told AFP that in similar operations, special forces are always on alert to rescue pilots in enemy territory.
“It provides immense peace of mind to know that they will do everything they can to come get you,” he said, adding, “at the same time, they will not embark on a suicide mission.”
According to him, the priority for a pilot in this situation is to “hide” and find the best possible place to wait for extraction, such as a clearing or the roof of a building.
Specialists in these operations
A veteran who has conducted similar evacuation missions, Aaron MacLean, explained to CBS News that teams responsible for retrieving the aviator “operate with different aerial means to intervene in these specific circumstances.”
He described them as “an extraordinary group of special operators, who come to the rescue of pilots who themselves have received extensive training in survival, evasion, and resistance to potential captors.”
MacLean added that the crew member has a GPS tracker, a beacon, and an encrypted radio that allows them to evade enemy forces while signaling their presence to potential rescuers.
Iran wants to capture the aviator
The state television station in this southwestern region of Iran has broadcast images presented as those of the wreckage.
The governor of the Iranian province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad said that “anyone who captures the crew would be particularly praised,” according to the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA, cited by Al-Jazeera.
Several planes hit, according to Iran
The Iranian army claimed to have shot down on Friday a F-15E fighter bomber. One of the two aviators ejected during the flight and was exfiltrated during a raid by special forces.
The Iranian army also claimed to have hit another American plane, an A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft, which then crashed in the Gulf. The New York Times had previously reported the crash of an American plane near the Strait of Hormuz, adding that its sole pilot was rescued unharmed.
In an interview with NBC, he assured that this did “not change anything at all” in the potential negotiations with Tehran to find a way out of this conflict, which is shaking the global economy.
