Hunt for missing pilot after US fighter jet is shot down over Iran

One pilot has been rescued alive, while the Iranian state media has urged residents to hunt down the missing crew member.

The US military has launched a major search operation after an F-15 fighter jet was taken down in Iran.

Now reports have emerged that a second US aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf around the same time the F-15 went down.

The second aircraft was reportedly an A-10 Warthog attack plane, which plunged near the troubled Strait of Hormuz, with its single pilot safely rescued.

Two American military helicopters involved in the rescue were reportedly targeted and hit, but crews and the aircraft were safe, according to a US official.

Iran’s state-linked media has been taunting the Americans with images appearing to be from the wreckage of a US F-15 jet, the first aircraft to be shot down.

Footage appears to show the ejection seat from the Air Force jet, which Iran claims it shot down this morning.

One crew member on board the F-15E jet was reportedly rescued alive by the US teams, while the second pilot is still being searched for, according to two officials speaking to CBS News.

They are receiving medical treatment after being found.

The location of the second pilot is not currently known, but American search and rescue aircraft are scouring the area.

While the site of the downing has not been disclosed, it is thought to be somewhere in the mountainous Kohkilouyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in southwestern Iran.

Officials told the New York Times that teams are looking for the missing pilots before Iran could get to them. Experts have warned that Iran capturing and parading an American pilot would be a propaganda win for the regime.

The fighter jet is thought to have been taken down by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s state media has reportedly called for residents to search for the pilots for a reward, and target any search aircraft.

Metro has contacted the US CENTCOM and Pentagon for a comment.

Donald Trump is yet to comment publicly on the incident, but the White House has reportedly said that the president has been briefed on the incident.

Earlier, Trump issued fresh threats against Iran, saying the US military ‘hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.’

He wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday evening that Iran’s bridges and electric power plants will be ‘next.’

The POTUS boasted that the US can ‘easily open the Hormuz strait, take the oil and make a fortune.’

‘It would be a “gusher” for the world???’ he wrote.

Meanwhile, Tehran has rejected a 48-hour ceasefire proposal by the US, according to the government-linked Fars news agency.

Trump said that the downing of the aircraft will not affect negotiations, NBC News reports.

Last month, six US Air Force soldiers survived after their F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Kuwait in a friendly fire mix-up amid Iranian air strikes.

They parachuted to safety after ejecting themselves and landed safely in the Kuwaiti desert, where locals realised what country they were from.

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