{"id":362464,"date":"2026-04-03T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/362464\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:34:10","slug":"crew-member-rescued-after-us-fighter-jet-goes-down-in-iran-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/362464\/","title":{"rendered":"Crew member rescued after US fighter jet goes down in Iran, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday, and one of two crew members was rescued, officials said, the first aircraft downed since the war began nearly five weeks ago<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The whereabouts of the second crew member was unknown.<\/p>\n

The downing marked a major escalation in the conflict just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the US<\/a> has \u201cbeaten and completely decimated Iran\u201d and was \u201cgoing to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rescue occurred as the US military was conducting a search operation, a US official and an Israeli official said. Three people familiar also confirmed that a search had been underway. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitivity of the situation.<\/p>\n

No official details were released. The Pentagon notified the House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member is not known.<\/p>\n

The circumstances that downed the plane were at first unclear. But in an email from the Pentagon obtained by The Associated Press, the US military said it received notification of \u201can aircraft being shot down\u201d in the Middle East, without providing more details.<\/p>\n

Separately, a second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday (local time), according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It was not clear if the aircraft crashed, was shot down, or whether Iran was involved. Neither the crew\u2019s status nor where the aircraft went down was immediately known.<\/p>\n

The New York Times earlier reported that the second aircraft went down.<\/p>\n

Those incidents came as Iran fired on targets across the Mideast on Friday, keeping the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours, despite US and Israeli insistence that Iran\u2019s military capabilities have been all but destroyed.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.<\/p>\n

Downed jet could mark a new level of pressure on the US<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A newly constructed bridge struck by US airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Prior to word of the rescue, social media footage showed American drones, aircraft and helicopters flying over the mountainous region where a TV channel affiliated with Iranian state television had said earlier Friday that at least one pilot bailed out of the fighter jet.<\/p>\n

An anchor had urged residents to hand over any \u201cenemy pilot\u201d to police and promised a reward.<\/p>\n

It was the first time the US has lost aircraft in Iranian territory during the conflict, and could mark a new level of pressure being placed on the US military.<\/p>\n

Throughout the war, Iran has made a series of claims about shooting down piloted enemy aircraft that turned out not to be true. Friday was the first time that Iran went on television, urging the public to look for a downed pilot.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media said in a post on X that Iran\u2019s military shot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft is a variation of the Air Force fighter jet that carries a pilot and weapons system officer.<\/p>\n

Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the Air Force Safety Center, said the Strike Eagle has an emergency locator beacon in a survival kit that can be set to activate automatically or manually.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a previous statement that Trump had been briefed but did not offer additional information.<\/p>\n

Iran targets a desalination plant and a refinery<\/p>\n

The claim came after Kuwait\u2019s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery came under Iranian attack, and the state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp said firefighters were working to control several blazes.<\/p>\n

Kuwait also said an Iranian attack caused \u201cmaterial damage\u201d to a desalination plant. Such plants are responsible for most of the drinking water for Gulf states, and they have become a major target in the war.<\/p>\n

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed several Iranian drones, and Israel reported incoming missiles.<\/p>\n

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire.<\/p>\n

Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it wasn\u2019t immediately clear what was hit. A day earlier, Iran said the US hit a major bridge, which was still under construction, killing eight people.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militant group, an Israeli drone strike on worshippers leaving Friday prayers near Beirut killed two people, according to the state\u2011run National News Agency<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman checks a destroyed house that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

More than 1900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites \u201crather than indiscriminate bombardment\u201d of urban areas.<\/p>\n

More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, 19 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US service members have been killed.<\/p>\n

More than 1300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.<\/p>\n

Iran is keeping a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

World leaders have struggled to end Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the strait, which has had far-reaching consequences for the global economy and has proved to be its greatest strategic advantage in the war.<\/p>\n

The UN Security Council was expected to take up the matter on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Trump has vacillated on America\u2019s role<\/a> in the strait, alternately threatening Iran if it doesn\u2019t open the waterway and telling other nations to \u201cgo get your own oil\u201d. On Friday, he said in a post on social media that, \u201cWith a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spot prices of Brent crude, the international standard, were around US$109 Friday, up more than 50% since the start of the war, when Iran began restricting traffic through the strait.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s former top diplomat suggests terms to end the war<\/p>\n

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif \u2014 a diplomat with long experience negotiating with the West who remains close to a pragmatic wing of Iran\u2019s leadership \u2014 wrote on Friday in Foreign Affairs magazine that the time has come to end what he referred to as a stalemate.<\/p>\n

The US and Iran have proposed duelling plans, and Zarif’s proposal included elements of both in a sign that part of Iran’s leadership might be willing to negotiate.<\/p>\n

Iran \u201cshould offer to place limits on its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions \u2014 a deal Washington wouldn\u2019t take before but might accept now\u201d, he wrote.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how much to read into the proposal from Zarif, who has no official position in Iran\u2019s government, but would likely not have published such a piece without at least some authorisation from senior leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US fighter jet was shot down in Iran on Friday, and one of two crew members was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-362464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-middle-east","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}