This video footage, recorded on April 3, 2026 from UGC images published on social media the same day, shows an American plane, followed by two helicopters, flying over the city of Zaras, in Khuzestan province, southern Iran. UGC photo / AFP / Israel OUT
Iran and the United States were racing Saturday to locate one of the two crew members from the first U.S. aircraft to crash on Iranian territory since the start of the war.
The Iranian military said it shot down the aircraft, an F-15E fighter-bomber. U.S. media, however, reported that one of the two aviators ejected and was recovered in a special forces operation in southwestern Iran, while the fate of the second remained unknown.
Five weeks after the war began on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran, the incident marks a setback for the U.S. Air Force. The conflict has killed thousands of people, most of them in Iran and Lebanon.
The Iranian military also claimed it struck another U.S. aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support plane, which it said crashed into the Gulf.
Earlier, The New York Times reported the crash of a U.S. aircraft near the Strait of Hormuz, adding that its sole pilot had been rescued and was unharmed.
The White House said only that President Donald Trump had “been kept informed” of the loss of an aircraft in southwestern Iran.
In an interview with NBC, Trump said the incident did not “change anything at all” regarding possible negotiations with Tehran to end the conflict.
Since the start of the war, no U.S. troops have been killed or captured on Iranian soil, but 13 have died in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
‘Hide out’
The F-15E was brought down by an air defense system operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the country’s ideological military force, an Iranian armed forces spokesperson said, adding that searches were ongoing.
The Washington Post and The New York Times said they had verified images circulating on social media and Iranian outlets showing U.S. helicopters and aircraft flying at low altitude over the area.
State television in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad region in southwestern Iran broadcast footage it said showed the wreckage and offered a “generous reward” for information leading to the pilots.
Houston Cantwell, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, told AFP that during such operations, special forces are kept on constant alert to rescue downed pilots.
“It gives immense peace of mind to know they’ll do everything they can to come get you,” he said, adding that “they are not going to launch into a suicide mission.”
He said a pilot’s top priority in such a situation is “above all to hide out” and wait in the safest possible location for extraction.
At the same time, Iran continued launching missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf monarchies allied with Washington, in retaliation for strikes on its territory and threats from Trump to target its infrastructure.
‘Efforts wiped out’
One person was slightly wounded Saturday morning by shattered glass in a suburb of Tel Aviv, according to emergency services, after alerts for incoming Iranian missiles.
In Bahrain, debris from intercepted drones caused four minor injuries and material damage, authorities said.
In Tehran, an AFP journalist reported several loud explosions in the north of the city, an area hit by heavy strikes the previous day.
Trump has threatened to target Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power plants, raising concerns a« out potential violations of international law.
AFP journalists visited »the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, where a large cable-stayed bridge under construction was destroyed Thursday in strikes.
’’We worked on this bridge« for two years, morning and evening, with all our hearts,’’ engineer Hamed Zekri told AFP. ‘’Our effor »s were wiped out in the space of three hours,’’ betw« en the first and second stri »es. ‘’But we will rebuild it.’’
According to the Martyrs Foundation of Alborz province, cited by the IRNA news agency, the strikes killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.
“The largest bridge in Iran collapses and will never be used again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without explaining why the site was targeted.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi responded on X that “striking civilian infrastructure, including unfinished bridges, will not make the Iranians surrender.”
Iran’s Fars news agency published a list of “important regional bridges” it said could be targeted in retaliation, including the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Bridge in Kuwait and the King Fahd Causeway linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
