This Changes EVERYTHING…

Iran shot down a US F-15 and the pilots

Coming into Fox News Channel. The president has now been briefed on a downed F-15 fighter jet. This is a US fighter jet We are also told a statement from CENTCOM is expected shortly We want to bring in the chief national security correspondent

Oh man, you can see the choppers trying to find the pilots?

Well Trace we had some details of this alleged downed F-15E fighter jet that went down in southwest Iran. It's in the province that is actually closest to Karg Island, which we've been hearing so much about. We had withheld reporting on this until now because there was an active search and rescue operation ongoing.

But now that we've learned that the president has been briefed on the downed F-15, we are getting some details from open source online showing that the actual pilot seat from the F-15 was seen on the ground suggesting that at least one of the pilots had ejected and the pilot was not present at that site where the photo was taken.

Thank God it would have been captured.

So that suggested that one may have survived at least. There are two pilots in an F-15E and they would have been flying. We see also some open source video showing that there were two search and rescue helicopters that were being refueled midair in daylight.

That's this clip right here.

That would suggest, again, an urgency to that search and rescue mission, because it would be rare to conduct a search and rescue mission with low-flying helicopters over an area that is possibly contested, Given that this happened during the daylight hours, it shows an urgency and a suggestion that some of the pilots may have survived.

Yes.

And the thing you got to understand, the aircraft that was shot down, it's the F-15E Strike Eagle. This is the multi-role version of the F-15 that can do ground attack missions. You have two pilots and the country's praying they're okay.

All right, so we have a little bit of an update on the downed pilots that went down in Iran. Apparently, according to a article written by Axios 20 minutes ago, as I'm recording this video, both crew members of the F-15 Echo Strike Eagle were able to eject safely.

Okay, that's good.

U.S. Special Forces located and rescued one crew member alive in Iranian territory, while the search and rescue operation for the second crew member is still ongoing. Now, the White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, confirmed to Axios that the president has been briefed on this. Meanwhile, Iran is also actively hunting for the crew, which means this last pilot is in a rough spot. The combat search and rescue operation is still underway and also apparently Israeli officials told Axios that they cancelled planned strikes in the relevant areas of Iran to avoid interfering or endangering the ongoing US search and rescue effort.

So this is a rapidly developing situation right now. A lot of new information keeps coming out. Hopefully we'll get some information about the second pilot soon. So the good news is that the US has air supremacy over Iran. What that means is that even though there is a pilot on the run who has not been rescued yet, thank God we got one of the pilots, the ability of Iran to send helicopters or mobile units, even a large convoy of vehicles to go and try to locate this individual, that's going to be limited because we have eyes and ears all over the battlefield. And there's a good chance that right now we know where that pilot is and someone can see them from a drone, from an aircraft, from the devices they carry with them to broadcast

their signal once they are in enemy territory and need to be rescued. Apparently Iranian state media has video out of people apparently looking to try and find these pilots. They've sent out a reward. Look at this. This is the environment on the ground, allegedly. This is so crazy.

I would not want to be out there right now. You don't know if the folks who find you, if it's not the rescue crew, are going to be friendly.

What do we know about Iranian television? How credible is it and how much concern is that that people are being told to do certain things inside the country?

Yeah, they told them to go find the pilots.

Well, Iranian media, as you know, Trace, is state-controlled. It is a propaganda network that would have an interest. And we have seen over the last 32 days or so that they have put out multiple times that they had shot down F-35 fighter jets, and it had not been true. That is why it was so important for us to get independent confirmation that this F-15 had in fact gone down. So some of the details that the Iranians are putting out may in fact be propaganda for

their purposes. But what we can say at this point is the President of the United States has been briefed on this F-15 going down. And that CENTCOM is expected to put out a statement. So we feel comfortable in reporting the fact that the F-15 did go down.

I don't think President Trump's gonna let them get away with downing a fighter and holding US hostages.

That one has been rescued and is getting medical attention as we speak. We don't know if it was a male or a female pilot. As we've reported in the past, there are both men and women flying these F-15Es. Yeah, thank God. But that is the latest and very good news, of course, that at least one of the two crew members did survive.

Kayleigh?

And Jennifer, quickly, we just have a few moments here. Our thoughts immediately go to that second pilot. I imagine the search, rescue, it is ongoing. Any news on the second pilot?

There is no news at this point in time, but as you can imagine, we've seen the images of the Pavehawk helicopters. Those are the special forces helicopters that are part of that search and rescue mission. They were being air refueled over in daylight over the contested area. We've seen the image of the pilot seat and the parachute that was part of the ejection

mechanism. It looks like that worked, and that is very good news, but the Iranians have put out a reward for that second American or for both Americans. And so it is a very, very tenuous time right now, but those crew members and pilots would have been given

SEER training, survival and evasion training. And we are now thinking of them, thinking of their families and hoping that as the sun goes down now over Iran, that it will be easier for the search and rescue operation to continue and to find that second crew member.

Because conceivably, if the pilot is visible, if they could be picked up, it's just a matter of time before an extraction force goes in and gets them. And we all hope that they are not captured and taken hostage. We know what happened to British pilots when their tornado was shot down during Desert Storm and they were taken hostage by the Iraqis. So we don't want something similar like that to happen to our pilots here,

that's for sure. But one thing we know is the pilots both ejected. The ejection seats were found empty. That gives us hope. And right now, all over X, there are videos of these helicopters flying around so they know that there is somebody out there.

We now bring in Matthew Wyss Buckley, retired Navy fighter pilot and Top Gun graduate. Sir, your thoughts as we receive the good news that one of the pilots, one of the two crew members of the downed F-15 has been rescued and is safe, sir.

They're in enemy territory.

Well, it makes my heart smile, obviously, any time we have an aircraft down, an air crew missing, my thoughts and prayers go out to them. But we need one more. When this happened, the combat search and rescue teams of the United States Air Force, some of the most elite on the face of this planet, immediately sprang into action. And they will not sleep until we know the status of the second air crew. They could be injured. They could be evading, as Jennifer just alluded to.

We go through SEER training, survival of evasion, resistance and escape. And or, you know, they might just be hiding out for a bit. So we don't know. But seeing the clips of a C-130, the on scene commander, essentially the tanker, the command and control, they also have PJs on board that could jump out to potentially rescue. And then the Pedro's or the Jolly Green helicopters, we obviously have air superiority if we're operating at that low altitude looking for this second air crew.

Matthew, we only have a few moments, but the information I want to know immediately is was this pilot at the site of the wreckage, perhaps with the other pilot, or was this pilot discovered away from the wreckage and they're trying to retrace the steps to the other pilot?

Well, it's a great question. I'm not going to dig into too much of the secret squirrel stuff that goes on from an ejection and winds and the area that the search and rescue folks are looking in. But it should be the second aircrew should be around there. But if they ejected in a dynamic situation, the jet was out of control,

they might be further apart. It depends on a lot of factors that I just don't want to dig into. You got to remember this plane is flying through the air and depending on when people get out, depending on what direction the wind might take one person to shoot, how soon the chutes open, they could be separated by miles. Breaking news out of the war with Iran. By now you've likely heard that an F-15E They could be separated by miles. It can carry multiple 2,000-pound bombs. It's got a pretty long range. It has two seats. So one is a pilot, one is a weapons systems operator. We know that one of those people,

we don't know which, has been rescued. And also by now, you've probably seen lots of videos online of a pretty extensive search and rescue operation. Now, the pilots themselves are kitted out with special devices that can alert US aircraft and personnel where they are basically like advanced GPS devices. They've also

been trained tactically in survival skills. What we don't know is if this second pilot if they're hiding from let's say a group of people who might be looking for them they might not be able to broadcast their signal because it might give away their location. It might not be safe for them to come out and get picked up right away. There have been reports in the past of pilots being shot down over enemy territory who spend time in cover waiting for the coast to be clear so that they can even alert our guys to their presence and get picked up. We don't know what their situation is right now.

I'm so thankful they found one person. That is such an accomplishment right there. And the other thing you have to understand, there have been thousands of sorties over this country and this is the first downing of a US jet. Of course, this is not a good thing,

but this by no means means that the United States is losing the war. This by no means means that the United States is losing the war. This by no means means that Iran is somehow not on its last legs as far as the regime is concerned. The chance of a plane getting shot down has always existed. And I think that even though we're looking at a situation where a pilot is missing, one pilot has been rescued. And although there was always a chance this could happen, the fact that it has only happened once so far

is a testament to how successful this operation has been. So they'll know to hide, they'll know how to take cover. They'll probably have a little bit of food and water on them at the time of the rejection from the airplane. If both of them did manage to survive

the plane being taken down. You're gonna see videos out there of Black Hawk helicopters being refueled. They are part of the search and rescue operation. You might also see AC-10 Warthogs. Those are fixed-wing planes that can fly low and slow.

They have really heavy machine guns that can blast anything on the ground if they can see that the pilots are in trouble. Right, that's a big part of this is the air supremacy that the United States has over Iran right now. If there are armored vehicles,

if there are hostiles approaching a pilot and we know the location of that pilot, we have the ability to protect them and clear the ground, so to speak, so that they can be safely picked up. Also, here's something to

keep in mind you're going to see reports like this that oh Trump's lying about air superiority. Air superiority happens when you dominate the air. Air superiority happens when your enemy does not have an air force to send up against you. It is possible to have air superiority over a given piece of land and still have planes get shot down. Air superiority does not mean nothing comes up from the ground to attack those airplanes. It means there are not other airplanes in the sky.

So the Trump administration has not been lying when they said we achieved air superiority

and now air supremacy, rather, over Iran. Iran 37 times in a row. This brilliant no strategy war they started has now been downgraded from regime change to hey can anyone find out our pilots please. So this is the first

official reaction. With respect to- I'm sure they're gloating and this is going to be used in the propaganda war designed to convince people that the United States should walk away from this and that this is a bad idea and that Iran, this country that has been terrorizing its neighbors, launching ballistic missiles at its neighbors, threatening the United States, threatening the entire world,

that it should just be allowed to stand because the cost is too high when the reality here is, even though this event has taken place, an enormous accomplishment is what encapsulates this entire Operation Epic Fury.

Yeah, Mugo, it's very significant. And I just wanna sort of recap because you said that maybe one pilot, because we got confirmation from US officials tell us that that F-15 fighter jet did come down over Iranian airspace. And was search and rescue operations underway and that's after

Iranian TV said that an aircraft had crashed there had been shot down and showed wreckage of that downed jet and the wreckage was found in central Iran. So what we're talking about here is that F-15 Strike Eagle can be a one-seater or two-seater variant. As we understand it's the F-15E which can be a one seater or two seater variant. As we understand, it's the F-15E, which can be a two-member crew. A statement on Iranian television has urged residents to join the hunt for the pilot or pilots offering a bounty for any U.S. service members found dead or alive.

There are reports again from the Iranians that there are heavy clashes underway between Iranian military and the U.s. search and rescue test we have to point out these are how to be conducted at low level in broad daylight black hawk helicopters dangerous man aircraft within reach and at risk

so again we're we're awaiting the details about the status of the pilot or pilots but it calls into question we talk about how significant this is claims from defense secretary pete hig Hegseth and others that the United States and Israeli forces, remember they're in this fight too, have achieved air superiority. In fact, we learned just a few moments ago, the governor of that southwest province says

whoever captures or kills the crew of that downed jet will be commended by the government. And where this changes things significantly is because when the military sends fighter jets into a hostile environment, they target what's called standoff targets, meaning they target air defenses and launchers while staying out of reach.

So achieving air superiority, it's a technical term, but that enables jet fighters to loiter, as the military puts it, to stay in the air for longer and get closer to these targets and in some cases refuel.

But it doesn't mean there is not a guy hiding in a cave with a portable shoulder-launched missile that can be fired up. Doesn't mean there are no threats to these aircraft. It just means there are no air-to-air threats. Look right here. Google gets it right. A high degree of control over the airspace that there are no air-to-air threats. So air superiority

does not mean zero threats. It just means there are no other aircraft up there trying to shoot down the good guys. And that is very important to remember because people are going to say Trump's

lying. People are going to say Trump's putting people at risk and lying about our military and that's not true. So if it is a shoot down, not necessarily a crash, it suggests that the United States and Israelis have failed to dismember Iranian air defenses or decimate, whichever, obliterate, whatever term you want to use, or that the Iranians have been holding fire and keeping some of that, their fire dry. Again, it's it's developing when it comes to the status of the pilot or pilots. All we know for certain is that what's called a combat search

and rescue is underway. And I want to ask about that because you talk about search and rescue.

Obviously, there's a lot going on. Since aircraft were invented and used in warfare, there have been many times where air superiority was achieved over a battlefield. Think about World War II. There were times where no opposing aircraft could come up and attack U.S. bombers and P-51 Mustangs flying over their targets, but aircraft were still shot down from flak and from ground fire. Air superiority was achieved, but aircraft were still lost in combat. It's tragic, but this is what happens in any conflict. And again, the fact that it has only happened once in this operation reiterates how

successful it is but now the propaganda war is on. Yes you know the United States military trains for exactly this sort of environment. It is very rare for US aircraft to go down a fighter jet to go down in a hostile environment and to land in quote enemy territory. But these are US Air Force pilots, pilot or pilots that would have been inside this F-15 fighter jets. But in addition to all of that, you also have these search and rescue teams that are either

already in the air just in case something like this happens or they get fired up right away. So there will be locators on exactly where this jet was hit, where the debris was rained down. They would have locators on themselves. They know where it is.

And they've been specifically trained and drilled to go after what might happen in an event like this. And that's where you scramble the Black Hawk helicopters and what's called a combat search and rescue, CSAR, that is scrambled to fly at low levels because they have to. They have to get close to the ground to figure out and get eyes on where these pilots might

be and where they might be found. I'm not entirely sure of the topography or geography of that area because I don't know it that well, but it's going to be rugged. Probably it's going to be remote. The fact that the Iranians themselves, even on Iranian television, have sort of urged locals to go out on the hunt and find these pilots suggests that it wasn't

in a relatively populated area. You know what the good news is about that? If the Iranian leaders, the regime leaders that are still in power, that aren't the ones negotiating with the president to end this thing, if they're telling people, hey, go find these pilots, we'll give you a reward. What does that tell you? It tells you they don't have the manpower to go and find these pilots. They're hoping somebody turns them in. But these guys, they're not out there risking their own skin. They want their own people to go find them. That's another element of this that I hadn't

own people to go find them. That's another element of this that I hadn't thought of right away. But if they're asking for help, it means they don't have