Of the three crew members across both aircraft, two have been rescued — one from each jet. But the third, a crew member from the downed F-15, remains missing somewhere inside Iran, triggering a tense and dangerous search-and-rescue operation.
According to New Zealand’s Stuff and multiple other outlets, US special forces entered Iranian territory to recover the missing aviator — an extraordinary and high-risk mission deep inside hostile borders. A US official confirmed the recovery of one F-15 crew member but offered no details on how it was accomplished.
Iran’s parliament speaker publicly mocked the American search mission, a taunt that underscores the propaganda value Tehran is extracting from the incident. Iranian and American forces were described as effectively “racing each other” to reach the downed crew first — a scenario with echoes of Cold War-era confrontations.