{"id":173787,"date":"2026-06-23T12:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/173787\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:44:19","slug":"downed-us-pilot-saw-iran-drones-flying-in-jellyfish-formation-real-alien-st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/173787\/","title":{"rendered":"Downed US pilot saw Iran drones flying in \u2018jellyfish\u2019 formation: \u2018Real alien s**t\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The US fighter pilot rescued by commandos after he was shot down by Iran in April <\/a>has described how Iranian drones swarmed him in what appeared to be a \u201cjellyfish\u201d formation before he ejected from his plane, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Iranian forces opened fire on the $31m F-15E Strike Eagle on 3 April, triggering a major search<\/a> for the missing weapons-system officer, who held out in the mountains for hours before his dramatic rescue.<\/p>\n

During a debriefing with intelligence officials, the pilot described seeing a unified and overwhelming drone formation resembling a jellyfish, sources familiar with the matter told CNN<\/a> in a report published on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,\u201d one of four sources familiar with the pilot\u2019s testimony told the outlet. \u201cReal alien s**t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA US F-15 Strike Eagle went down in Iran in April (file) (Getty)<\/p>\n

The manoeuvre suggests a startling development in Iran\u2019s ability to use drones en masse on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

The cause of the F-15 downing – the first time a US aircraft had been shot down over Iran during the conflict – is still being investigated. Two of the sources told CNN that it was possible the \u201cjellyfish\u201d drone formation had enabled Iran to take down the all weather jet.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said on the day of the incident that it had used a new air defence system which targeted a US fighter jet, three drones and two cruise missiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy should know that we rely on new air-defence systems built by the young, knowledgeable, and proud people of this country, unveiling them one after another in the field,\u201d a spokesperson said at the time.<\/p>\n

The pilot safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters on the day, despite one of the helicopters coming under small arms fire, according to CBS, citing US officials.<\/p>\n

\"PhotosPhotos from Iranian state media claimed to show fragments of a downed US jet after the crash in April (via REUTERS)<\/p>\n

Intelligence officials later debriefing the pilot disagreed on whether they could recall the incident clearly, having been concussed in the crash, according to CNN.<\/p>\n

Following the pilot\u2019s recovery, the US military launched a multi-pronged rescue mission to bring back the missing officer, who US officials said was trapped in Iran with only a handgun to defend himself.<\/p>\n

The CIA reportedly engaged in a deception campaign, spreading false information that the airman had already been found and recovered, according to CBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US president Donald Trump announced two days later that the second airman had been recovered and was \u201csafe and sound\u201d. He said he had sustained injuries but was \u201cjust fine\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4509,2533,13360,177,989,3077,20806,394,5084,34,53395,179,201,81,5485,53397,53396,811],"class_list":["post-173787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2026-iran-conflict","tag-boeing","tag-color-image","tag-conflict","tag-diplomacy","tag-england","tag-f-15e-strike-eagle","tag-government","tag-horizontal","tag-iran","tag-lakenheath","tag-military","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-raf-lakenheath","tag-taking-off-activity","tag-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116799489423526792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173787","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=173787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}