In what could be described as one of the most daring search-and-rescue operations, the US on Sunday announced that it successfully extracted the missing crew member of the US F-15 fighter jet that was shot down over Iran over the last week. US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that the US military official was “safe and sound”.
Though the US did not identify the crew members, reports said he was a Weapons Systems Officer and a “highly respected Colonel”.
According to a report that appeared in The New York Times, the operation unfolded over nearly two days and was described as a race against time between American and Iranian forces searching for the downed airman.
The US had sent dozens of aircraft armed with the most lethal weapons in the world to retrieve him. These included elite special operations forces and aircraft from multiple branches. The US crew member was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran and was actively being “hunted down by Iranians who were closing in on him.”
Amid this, the CIA, the US intelligence agency, launched a “deception campaign” inside Iran before starting the rescue mission to confuse the Iranians. A report by Fox News said the CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had already located the airman and were moving him on the ground for exfiltration.
This left the Iranians confused and uncertain. After this, the CIA resorted to its unique talents to locate the airman, which the report described as “like looking for a needle in a haystack”. The airman was reportedly hiding inside a mountain crevice and invisible without CIA capabilities. The CIA immediately shared the service member’s location with the Pentagon and the White House, the report added.
The airman managed to evade capture for two days and used survival training to move away from the wreckage and hide on elevated ground. He was signalling for rescue and was in close contact with the US surveillance team. He only had a pistol as Iranian forces continued to scour the area. The Iranians also mobilised civilians to hunt him down.
A US rescue aircraft reportedly struck Iranian convoys that were rounding off the area in search of the airman. A heavy firefight broke out with Iranian units, but as per reports, this was not directly between Iranian and US forces.
The US soon managed to locate and extract the airman. However, another unexpected complication emerged when the two aircraft meant to evacuate the rescue teams malfunctioned. The US then had to deploy three alternative aircraft to complete the extraction, while the malfunctioning aircraft were bombed to avoid the Iranians getting hold of them.
The rescue team then managed to fly out of Iranian airspace safely to Kuwait to receive treatment for his injuries. None was injured in the rescue operation.