Posted on | April 5, 2026 | No Comments
Late Saturday afternoon, reports began circulating online that the U.S. had located the weapons systems officer (WSO) from the F-15E fighter that got shot down Friday in Iran. The pilot had been rescued almost immediately after the plane went down, but finding the WSO was more difficult, and the effort to rescue him was quite risky:
U.S. special operations forces rescued the second crew member from a downed F-15E fighter jet in Iran after a “heavy firefight,” successfully extracting both airmen and all rescue personnel from the country, according to multiple reports.
U.S. officials told Axios and Fox News the high-risk combat search-and-rescue mission recovered the weapons systems officer more than a day after the aircraft was shot down, concluding a complex operation that unfolded behind enemy lines.
Officials described the shootdown as a “worst-case scenario,” with U.S. forces racing to recover the crew before Iranian units could capture them.
The second crew member was located on Saturday, triggering a rescue effort as Iranian forces, including elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also raced to the area to locate the downed airman.
U.S. air assets conducted strikes to prevent Iranian forces from closing in, while special operations units on the ground executed a layered extraction under fire.
The weapons systems officer had evaded capture after ejecting alongside the pilot, using Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training to move away from the wreckage and take cover on elevated terrain while activating an emergency beacon, according to reporting cited by Fox News.
There was fighting on the ground during the mission, though no U.S. personnel were killed, according to sources familiar with the operation.
It has been reported that two C-130 cargo planes, which carried rescue forces into Iran, had to be destroyed after their landing gear got stuck on the makeshift landing strip. One of my favorite moments of Saturday night was when Toby Harden confirmed the rescue:
The missing WSO from the shot-down USAF F-15E is now safe and back in American hands. An officer involved in monitoring the CSAR in southern Iran describing the aviator’s incredible tenacity: “He evaded up a 7k ridge. They’ve been schwackin’ dudes chasing him all day. Was nuts.”…
— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) April 5, 2026
A personal anecdote: In January 2012, when I went to cover the Republican primary campaign in South Carolina, my then-13-year-old son Jefferson pleaded to come with me, so I took him along. On the night of the Myrtle Beach debate, I filed my story, then told Jefferson to pack up the laptop and go wait for me in the lobby, while I went to meet some friends in the lobby bar. Having spent 10 or 15 minutes schmoozing with campaign operatives, I went to find Jeff and — he was gone! I looked everywhere, even got in my car and drove across the street to our hotel to see if he’d just decided to walk back, then returned to the convention center to keep looking. It was there that I encountered Toby Harnden, who was covering the campaign for the Daily Mail. When I explained to him that my son was missing, Toby offered to help look for him, so we split up — “You go this way, I’ll go that way” — and kept looking until Toby found him, asleep on a bench near the entrance to the ballroom where the debate had been staged. (Apparently, Jeff had misunderstood which lobby I meant for him to wait in — I’d meant the adjoining hotel lobby.) Anyway, Toby’s assistance in my moment of need earned him my enduring gratitude, and once he had confirmed the pilot’s rescue Saturday night, I knew it was the real deal.
“The op basically cost $300 million because they had to abandon the two AFSOC C-130s and the four MH-6 Little Birds. Then the U.S. Air Force had to use multiple bombs to blow up all the aircraft they abandoned at that airstrip. And the Iranians shot down 2 MQ-9s Reaper drones.… pic.twitter.com/xw5h2DkwwC
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) April 5, 2026
Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements were harvested by Apache aerial fire. Every time a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards tried to approach the American pilot,
– @mosha3324 pic.twitter.com/rXthkV6h2u
— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) April 5, 2026
