{"id":142956,"date":"2026-06-03T02:03:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/142956\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:03:32","slug":"us-pilot-shot-over-iran-had-been-downed-before-at-the-start-of-war-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/142956\/","title":{"rendered":"US pilot shot over Iran had been downed before at the start of war: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle pilot was shot down twice in less than a month<\/a> during the Iran war \u2014 but managed to walk away both times, according to a new report. <\/p>\n

The pilot, who has never publicly been named, had suffered one of the most arduous five-weeks of any Air Force aviator since the Vietnam war, former and current military officials told the High Side Substack<\/a>, with his bad luck beginning with a friendly-fire incident in Kuwait <\/a>on March 2.<\/p>\n

The incident saw Kuwait\u2019s defense forces accidentally fire on three F-15E Strike Eagle jets<\/a>, with all six crew members forced to eject and land safely within the allied nation. <\/p>\n

Six aviators were forced to parachute to safety following a friendly-fire incident in Kuwait during the start of the Iran war. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Kuwait, an ally of the US housing an American miltary facility, has been repeatedly attacked by Iran. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Despite the incident, the pilots were already back in the cockpit<\/a> four weeks later to carry out a bombing in Tehran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the time, touting the aviators\u2019 valor. <\/p>\n

But bad luck struck one of the pilots again just days after the operation when an F-15E fighter jet was hit over Iran, sending two aviators down in enemy territory. <\/p>\n

The pilot was quickly rescued on April 3, but the weapons officer had been injured and forced into hiding <\/a>after Iran placed a bounty on his head. <\/p>\n

The Air Force colonel was rescued the following day after the military tracked him to a location in the Zagros Mountain, where he had been taking refuge. <\/p>\n

The downed pilots were back in the cockpit just four weeks later to carryout bombings in Tehran. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Iran shot down a US F-15E on April 3, leading to a daring rescue operation for the pilot and weapons officer. Iranian state media<\/p>\n

Military officials suggested that the pilot, having been hit twice within five weeks, was \u201calmost certainly\u201d the first fixed-wing Air Force aviator to be shot down twice in the same conflict since the Vietnam War, according to High Side.<\/p>\n

US Central Command declined to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle pilot was shot down twice in less than a month during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1726,34,20853,36,82],"class_list":["post-142956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-air-force","tag-iran","tag-pilots","tag-war","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116683722109438211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}