The wreckage, an image of a handout provided at an unspecified location in Iran on April 5, 2026, shows what Iranian authorities say is a U.S. military helicopter that crashed during a mission to rescue the missing American pilot of the downed F-15E earlier this week. US President Donald Trump said on social media that the air force officer was safely rescued by US special operations forces. Iranian officials disputed Trump’s claims and said a search operation for the pilots was underway.
Handouts | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The rescue unfolded with near-perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, U.S. special forces sneaked unnoticed deep into Iran, scaled a 7,000-foot ridge, pulled stranded American weapons experts to safety and moved them to a secret rendezvous point before dawn Sunday.
Then everything stopped.
A U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that two MC-130 planes transporting some 100 special operations troops into rugged terrain south of Tehran suffered a mechanical failure and were unable to take off.
Suddenly, elite special forces are in danger of getting stuck behind enemy lines.
Their commanders made the high-risk decision to fly additional aircraft into Iran to attack the group in waves. The decision led to several tense hours of standby for elite special forces.
“If there was a ‘bad’ moment, that was it,” the official said, acknowledging that quick decision-making saved the day. The official, along with others who spoke to Reuters for this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the operation.
The gamble paid off. Rescue forces were withdrawn in stages, and the U.S. military destroyed the disabled MC-130 and four additional helicopters inside Iran, without risking leaving sensitive equipment behind.
The Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
The successful rescue ended one of the most dangerous episodes of the five-week conflict, averting what could have been a devastating loss of American life and easing a growing crisis for President Donald Trump, who is weighing whether to escalate a war that has already left thousands dead.
The downed pilot hid and made contact.
The rescued U.S. weapons expert was the second of two crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet that Iran said Friday was hit by an air defense attack. U.S. officials said the plane was flying over Isfahan province at the time of the crash, and the two pilots ejected separately. The pilot was rescued, but the second aviator remained in Iran.
U.S. air crews are trained in survival, evasion, resistance, and evacuation (SERE) techniques for being shot down behind enemy lines, but few are fluent in Farsi and face the challenge of avoiding detection when seeking help.
The U.S. officer, who Trump said had the rank of colonel, sprained his ankle and hid in a crevice at the top of a hill, according to a U.S. source familiar with some details of the operation.
The official said the airman later contacted the U.S. military to verify his identity, which was an important step to ensure rescuers did not fall into a trap.
A senior Trump administration official said the CIA had been conducting a deception campaign for some time, hoping to confuse Tehran by spreading information within Iran that the U.S. military had found the missing airmen and was moving them ahead of the operation.
But the U.S. military took additional steps, including jamming electronic equipment to keep people away and bombing major roads around the site, a U.S. source familiar with the plans said.
The plane ultimately sent to rescue the pilots and rescue team was a much smaller turboprop that could land on small airfields and was relatively lightweight, the official told Reuters.
The White House, Pentagon, and U.S. Central Command were unusually silent during the operation. Trump was relatively quiet, so a local reporter went to see if he was at Walter Reed Hospital.
Once the mission was completed, Trump was victorious.
“Over the past several hours, our military conducted one of the most daring search-and-rescue operations in American history,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured but “will be OK.”
US military planes collide
The initial search effort was met with stiff Iranian resistance when it began on Friday after the F-15 pilot was first rescued.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters participating in the search came under Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
In a separate incident, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter jet that crashed in a collision over Kuwait, but the extent of the crew’s injuries was unclear, officials said.
According to U.S. Central Command, 13 U.S. military personnel were killed and more than 300 injured in the conflict. No U.S. military personnel have been taken prisoner by Iran.
Trump has repeatedly tried to portray Iran’s military as in tatters, but military experts say Iran’s ability to repeatedly attack U.S. military aircraft is important.
Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Joint Forces Command announced Saturday that the military used a new air defense system to target a U.S. fighter jet on Friday.
Reuters first reported U.S. intelligence information showing Iran retains significant missile and drone capabilities.
Just over a week ago, the United States could only confidently determine that it had destroyed about a third of Iran’s missile force.
The situation for about the remaining third is less clear, but Reuters sources said the missiles were probably damaged or destroyed by bombing, or may have been buried in underground tunnels or bunkers.
Seemingly unburdened after the successful rescue, President Trump used harsh words on Sunday to threaten the Iranian government if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to the flow of oil vital to the global economy.
