U.S. military officials have yet to publicly confirm any information about an F-15E that appears to have crashed in Iran on Friday or the status of the aircraft’s crew amid media reports that one of two airmen onboard may have been rescued.
Official silence from U.S. officials is fairly typical when U.S. troops are in active combat, and it would match reports that a major rescue operation to find the crew was underway by mid-afternoon on Friday in the U.S., well past nightfall in Iran.
Task & Purpose confirmed on Friday that a plane was lost. Multiple other outlets have reported that one of the crew members was rescued, including the Washington Post, CBS News, and Axios. No information has emerged on the second crew member.
Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly with a pilot and weapons officer. Multiple F-15E squadrons are known to be participating in Epic Fury, including one from Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath in the United Kingdom. An unconfirmed video published by Iranian state media, said to be of wreckage of the jet, shows debris bearing distinctive red tail markings that closely match markings used by the base’s 494th Fighter Squadron.
Neither the Pentagon nor U.S. Central Command has made any public statements about the F-15 or its crew.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the matter, White House Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Friday.
An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television claimed on Friday that a U.S. pilot had ejected over southwestern Iran, adding that anyone who handed the pilot over to authorities would receive a reward.
Unconfirmed videos and photos shared on social media
The Washington Post has verified a video showing a U.S. C-130 aircraft refueling two HH-60H Pave Hawk helicopters over western Iran, which are used for search and rescue missions.
Iranian state media has shared photos on X that purportedly show the wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft in Iran. Task & Purpose has been unable to independently verify the images.
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No information has been publicly released about which unit the F-15 was assigned to. One photo shared on social media allegedly shows the tail section of the downed fighter. F-15s from RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom deployed to the Middle East in January as part of the U.S. military buildup in the region, leading up to operations against Iran.
On Friday, a spokesman for the Air Force’s 48th Fighter Wing, which oversees the squadron, referred questions on the matter to Central Command.
Since the U.S. military campaign against Iran, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, began on Feb. 28, the U.S. military has lost several manned and unmanned aircraft, including three F-15s that were accidentally downed in an apparent friendly fire incident over Kuwait on March 1, and a KC-135 aerial tanker that crashed in Iraq on March 12, killing all six airmen aboard.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
