How a high-risk rescue operation saved the US F-15E crew

In a harrowing operation over nearly two days, hundreds of U.S. troops rescued the two crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle after they ejected from their jet, which was shot down during a combat mission in Iran on April 3.

"An AMAZING show of bravery and talent by all!" President Donald Trump said about the rescue operation in a Truth Social post on April 5.

Rescuing one of the crew members was "like finding a needle in a haystack," Trump said at a briefing on April 6.

Though details are scarce, both U.S. and Iranian forces were racing to find the crew members, neither of whom has been identified. The United States suspended other combat operations to focus military efforts on the rescue, the BBC reported.

The CIA also played a part by tracking the crew member and misdirecting Iranian search attempts.

The first F-15E crew member, the pilot, was rescued by U.S. military helicopters about six hours after the jet crashed.

The second, the jet’s Weapons Systems Officer, an Air Force colonel, was separated from the pilot after ejection and sustained injuries. He was extracted more than 36 hours later by U.S. forces, including members of the Navy's SEAL Team 6 and other Special Operations forces.

The colonel evaded Iranian Revolutionary Guard and civilian searchers by sheltering in a crevasse in a 7,000-foot-high mountainous region in southwest Iran.

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It started with ejection from the F-15E

The F-15E was hit by Iranian air defense systems in the predawn hours of April 3, local time, said Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the briefing. Trump said the U.S. plane was hit by a shoulder-mounted, heat-seeking missile.

Both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft behind enemy lines and landed miles apart.

Though all jet crew members are trained on how to eject from damaged aircraft, the experience is hazardous. Ejection systems use rockets that produce “more than 10Gs of force in less than two seconds,” according to Task & Purpose.

To avoid a midair collision, the F-15E crew ejects less than a half-second apart. The aircraft’s canopy is jettisoned and the Weapons System Officer, seated in the back, ejects first. Then the pilot, sitting in front, ejects. Both seats, equipped with parachutes, are propelled upward and away from the aircraft.

The F-15E crashed in mountainous territory in the southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, near the Zagros mountains, multiple news sources reported.

The crew members carried a hand weapon, some survival gear, and an emergency beacon and other devices used to communicate with rescue forces.

What we know of aircraft used – and lost – in rescue mission

The U.S. military deployed 21 aircraft "within hours" of the fighter jet's crash, Trump said. The planes flew at low altitude over Iran for seven hours in the daylight before narrowing in on the pilot, "facing very, very heavy enemy fire," Trump said.

About 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers and 13 rescue aircraft, took part in the mission to pull the officer out of Iran, Trump said.

Rescue operations included B-1 bombers dropping 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs and MQ-9 Reaper drones firing at Iranians to keep them away from the colonel's location, the Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. forces reportedly used an improvised airfield inside Iran, south of the city of Isfahan, as a temporary base to rescue the colonel.

However, two large HC-130 transport planes that landed with the intent of removing rescue teams got stuck in the sand and were unable to take off. They were destroyed to prevent Iran from acquiring them.

Additional aircraft were flown into Iran and removed personnel in waves.

Two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters, modified versions of the UH-60 Black Hawk, that were part of the operation were also destroyed, for undisclosed reasons.

At least two of the four AH-6 helicopters that were used during the rescue mission were reported destroyed. They were from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers.

Additionally, a single-pilot A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft, known as a Warthog, was struck as it was searching for the F-15E on April 3. Its pilot was able to fly the plane over the Persian Gulf and eject. He was safely recovered, according to CBS News.

How did the CIA help?

The CIA aided the colonel’s rescue in two ways:

• Starting a campaign of deception to confuse search efforts by Iran to find the colonel.
• Using its specialized equipment to track the colonel’s emergency beacon on the ground.

The CIA planted information inside Iran that U.S. forces had found the crew member and were moving him out of the country. This gave the agency time to locate the colonel and relay his position to the military.

The agency used its specialized communications equipment to track the colonel’s hand-carried emergency beacon and coordinate with other sources to pinpoint his position, which was given to U.S. military forces.

The F-15E was the first combat loss for the U.S. in 23 years, according to aeronauticsmagazine.com. An A-10A was hit by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile over Baghdad on April 8, 2003.

This story has been updated with new information.

CONTRIBUTING Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY

SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; Task & Purpose; Military Times