Search for missing US crew member of downed fighter jet enters second day | US-Israel war on Iran
With Iran being heavily bombarded and Israel prolonging the war in Lebanon, the US’s search and rescue efforts for the missing second crew of the downed F-15E warplane continued on the second day.
A pilot was rescued on Friday after the F-15E Strike Eagle became the first US aircraft shot down over Iran during the five-week war, but the identity of the second of the two high-powered crew members was not disclosed.
Retired Air Force Brigadier General Houston Cantwell said the U.S. military has not had a jet shot down by enemy fire in more than 20 years, since a fighter jet was shot down during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Associated Press.
Iranian media published images of the wreckage on Friday, including a distinctive F-15 tail fin and a used ejection seat; state media and businesses across the country offered rewards if the missing crew member was caught.
The US air force launched a massive search and rescue operation using low-flying Pave Hawk helicopters and specialist C-130 Hercules transport.
Military pilots said the missing F-15 crew would try to hide from the Iranian military for as long as possible, potentially trying to transmit their location relative to a known secret point in the hope that U.S. special forces arriving by helicopter could rescue them.
Although it is unclear exactly how the F-15 was shot down, Iran has said it shot down it. While the US military has not commented publicly, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the incident would not affect efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Iran.
During the rescue, the Pave Hawk helicopter was hit by ground fire, but managed to fly successfully. Another warplane, an A-10 Warthog attack plane, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran claiming to have shot it down. Its pilot was rescued.
Although Iran was repeatedly bombed by the US and Israel on Saturday with several facilities at Mahshahr, a petrochemical complex in Khuzestan province, the F-15 and A-10 incidents show that Iran can still inflict damage on the US air force.
Iran said a building close to Iran’s civilian Bushehr nuclear power plant was hit on Saturday morning, killing a security guard. The IAEA atomic energy monitor later said it had been informed by Iran of the incident, the fourth in recent weeks, and added that “no increase in radiation levels has been reported”.
Israel also said it launched a wave of attacks overnight on what it said were air defense, ballistic missile storage and weapons development facilities in Tehran. In the attacks, which Iranians described as horrifying, many loud explosions were heard in the capital around 07.30 in the morning.
Iran’s foreign minister also said Tehran had not given up on possible peace talks in Pakistan – as reported overnight in the US. Posting on social media, Abbas Araghchi said that Iran’s attitude was misrepresented.
He wrote to
Trump said Iran should be ready to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers and commercial ships, reiterated that he had given Tehran a deadline to comply and threatened an unspecified escalation of tensions.
“Remember I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN THE THROAT OF HORUZ. Time is running out – 48 hours before Hell comes upon them. Praise be to GOD!” he said in a social media post.
The US president had initially threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants if it did not accept his proposed peace deal, and he repeated the threat periodically as he extended the deadline.
New waves of airlift from US military bases to the Middle East have been tracked by aviation enthusiasts since the beginning of April, fueling new speculation that Trump could order ground deployments to seize the Kharg Island oil terminal, islands in the Strait of Hormuz or Iran’s nuclear material.
At least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured in Iran since the start of the war, according to estimates by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, although exact figures are scarce.
Israel attacked Tire in southern Lebanon after telling residents to leave the area. One missile destroyed an 11-story building in the northeast of the city, the second partially destroyed a five-story structure, and the third hit the Burj al-Shamali Palestinian camp in the south of the city. Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than 1.1 million in Lebanon. Israel said Hezbollah sites in Beirut were also targeted on Friday and throughout the night.
Missiles continued to be fired at Israel. Four people were slightly injured in three different cities in central Israel, and Iran was accused of using cluster munitions, the use of which is banned by many countries, in the attacks. One reportedly crashed in a parking lot near Israel’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
