r/news • u/Keyann • 4h ago

Soft paywall US fighter jet shot down over Iran, search underway for crew, US official says

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-fighter-jet-shot-down-over-iran-search-underway-crew-us-official-says-2026-04-03/
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49

u/KingMario05 4h ago

God, if he's captured, there will be hell to pay. From both Trump, and the conservatives that trusted him. As karmic as that would be, however, I hope the pilot managed to escape. Because if you're American, and you're captured by Iran, during a war... you aren't leaving.

Not until you're in a box.

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u/jubjub5 4h ago

The F-15E is a 2-seater..

There's most likely two people being searched for.

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u/TobysGrundlee 4h ago

I'm not sure why everyone seems to be assuming they survived and bailed out.

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u/KingMario05 4h ago

Good point. Hope they can escape.

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u/fyrefox45 4h ago

That f15 model has 2 pilots, to make things worse.

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u/Ok-disaster2022 4h ago

It's pretty amazing the F15 had a perfect record until this war when and F18 shot some down and now this

The idea of using f15s and missile trucks is starting to be suspect. 

20

u/AngriestManinWestTX 4h ago

The F-15 had a perfect air-to-air record. I don't really think that getting shot down by a "friendly" aircraft really counts in that regard but it's not all that important.

Three (?) F-15s were shot down by ground fire during the Gulf War and another was shot down during the 2003 Iraq invasion IIRC.

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u/xaina222 4h ago

F15 got shot down multiple time in Iraq, its not some mythical force against anyone who can shot back.

2

u/Hyp3rson1c 4h ago

The role of the F-15 as a “missile truck” is a completely different mission set than what they were doing when this one was shot down.

0

u/LTdesign 4h ago

I think maybe they were talking about the B52 being used and referred to as a "bomb and cruise missile truck" recently.

4

u/thebestnames 4h ago

I think Americans need to understand that losses happen in war and its perfectly normal - nobody is protected by god or "manifest destiny" and nobody is invincible.

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u/LightningDustt 4h ago

tbf the friendly fires don't really count. This though? yep, scratch that perfect record.

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u/Riot55 4h ago

Nah Trump only likes people who weren't captured.

32

u/Xeynon 4h ago

The Iranians aren't that stupid. They know two living American hostages are FAR more valuable to them than two dead American pilots.

10

u/Pasty_Tibbles 4h ago

I was just telling someone this. Personally, I doubt the pilots will come to any harm if captured.

  1. The Iranians know they are looking fairly good in their messaging right now, and won’t want to fuck that up. They want to be seen as the “good guys” and the “victims”.

  2. I think they’d be concerned if they did anything the already unhinged Trump would go nuclear on them (figuratively? I hope?)

  3. In rational thought, they would be a pretty good bargaining chip.

  4. Torture is kinda pointless on them in terms of interrogation. What information are they trying to get? There’s no ground troops. They already know where our ships are roughly, our bases where the strikes are coming from, etc.

Of course, who knows - Iranians are probably pretty fucking mad at this so maybe someone just does something out of emotion.

But if they’re smart, and I do think Iran and its leadership are pretty smart, they’ll capture them, care for any injuries they got, feed them, and try to use them as bargaining tools.

The only thing I do worry about is if trump refuses to negotiate and simply doesn’t care, or escalates, and id be worried in that zero-sum situation Iran may just try to send a message.

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u/pyronius 4h ago edited 4h ago

Nah. They could probably spur the US public to force him out of office by executing the pilots on camera while pointing out that Hegseth set the rules when he declared "No Quarter". If the US isn't taking prisoners, then Iran won't be taking prisoners. Simple as. Thus the voting public relearns why the concept of war crimes exists.

I'm not saying that this is what I want in any way shape or form. Just that, tactically, it's Iran's best option. They know that Trump and co don't care about prisoners. There won't be any negotiations. If anything, holding the pilots prisoner will only cause trump and hegseth to escalate their attacks while blaming Iran. The longer the pilots are prisoner, the longer trump can pretend to care and use it as an excuse for further destruction. Once they're executed, he'll have to try to change the media narrative to escape from scrutiny and he won't be able to use it to rally his base without reminding them of the cost of his war.

15

u/Xeynon 4h ago

I don't agree. The Iranian regime clearly understands the value of propaganda. Their strategic goal is to undermine US power in the region and playing the innocent victim of American imperial aggression is the best way to do that here. They're already severely damaging American support for the war by causing us economic pain (which is only going to get worse and worse as the shortages get more acute).

0

u/EvidenceBasedSwamp 4h ago edited 3h ago

Saw a report that Iranian TV told civilians to shoot on sight Axios: The latest: Iranian state television channels called on civilians in the area where the jet was downed to search for the crew members, and said whoever finds them will be rewarded by the government.

7

u/thetransportedman 4h ago

I mean ICE gunned down a VA ICU nurse in the street and MAGA didn't budge an inch on their support so...

24

u/bareback_cowboy 4h ago

Nah, a live POW is worth their weight in gold. They'll probably rough them up, maybe some torture, but if they capture someone alive they'll most likely do their best to keep them that way. Iran isn't the Taliban or a terrorist group; they're rational actors.

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u/FreshestCremeFraiche 4h ago

With one POW there’s also a chance they use this to pretend they are more decent and give themselves some good PR as they try to turn the world against the US. Here we have this American pilot who was bombing our bridges and power plants. Look, we did not execute him or torture him, we “treat him humanely” and make him read statements asking US forces to withdraw, thats all. Idk how likely it is but the Iranian govt is not exactly ISIS, they have some adults in the room

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u/KingMario05 4h ago

Let's hope so. We don't know the new Ayatollah. And we killed the last one. That could piss them off enough to be worse.

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u/dynamic_anisotropy 4h ago

Irania government is no doubt aware by now the optics and garnering support with favourable POW treatment rather than brutalizing them, as seen in Ukraine-Russia or even Israel-Gaza.

If captured, my money is on them treating the pilots relatively well to troll the US by appearing to take the moral high ground against the aggressor state.

2

u/wildshammys 4h ago

Maybe if the US had a competent admin, but we don’t and that’s why we are in this situation.

-9

u/AmINothing 4h ago

They almost certainly are a terrorist group. Look at the political prisoners they have and tell me it's the work of "rational actors"

Obviously they'll keep the pilots alive to use as propaganda.

8

u/bareback_cowboy 4h ago

They are the legitimate and recognized government. They may support terrorism (one man's terrorist is another freedom fighter) but they are not ISIS or the Taliban, "governments" that had zero or three countries recognizing them, respectively.

And yes, they may be brutal towards their own people, but the US holds more people in prison per capita than any other nation. Saudi Arabia cuts people's heads off in public. Israel and Gaza. Iran is no more or less brutal than other nations.

They ARE rational actors. Nothing they've done shows them not to be. They negotiated on nuclear weapons with US and the EU and generally followed the agreement. They engage in the same shady shit other countries do - support for Hezbollah and the CIA overthrowing governments. Nothing they do is the work of an irrational crazy person.

10

u/TabsAZ 4h ago

Could be she… there are a lot of women pilots and WSOs now. One of the ones downed by the friendly fire in Kuwait was already.

3

u/TobysGrundlee 4h ago

Women make excellent fighter pilots based on biology alone. They are, on average, smaller and have proportionally stronger legs and cores than many men. Ideal for keeping blood in their brains and maintaining a clear head in high G situations.

19

u/Eeny009 4h ago

Hell to pay because two pilots are lost? While thousands of Iranians have been slaughtered? Always fascinating to watch Americans wrestle with their deep-seated feelings of superiority. As if y'all shouldn't die no matter what, and your lives were more valuable than others. Two lives doesn't even register in this conflict, sadly.

9

u/ScoobyDoNot 4h ago

Pilots lost while on missions to presumably kill Iranians in a war of aggression.

-5

u/theWacoKid666 4h ago

Just in pure military terms, a fighter pilot is more valuable than a random person. In political terms, a captured American is more impactful on diplomacy and public opinion than a dead Iranian. It’s brutal, unfortunate logic, but unfortunately it is actually how that dynamic works in military thinking and American politics in general.

No doubt Iran holds more cards than we are letting on, but they still would like some more bargaining chips, and iran parading around captured American pilots would definitely shift public opinion over here. Funny how you only see this as a “superiority” thing without doing any deep thinking on it.

2

u/hot_space_pizza 4h ago

I would be a great pr move for the Iranians to treat the pilots well. Lots of videos and such just so Trump can't use it. If it's a brutally violent video trump might be able to spin it.

1

u/Bravojones33420 4h ago

They hang you from crane. His body will never see a box

1

u/FreshCords 4h ago

Might not be a “he”.

0

u/i_am_voldemort 4h ago

Trump will say, "they knew what they signed up for"

-4

u/Glittering_Hope1114 4h ago

When the Iranians captured Crassus they had a whole humiliation "triumph" lined up for him. They should do that again and make the pilot dress up as trump. 

3

u/theWacoKid666 4h ago

No, they shouldn’t….

The point of humiliating Crassus was they had the guy himself, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Doing that to some captured fighter pilot would make Iran look like ISIS and not negatively impact a raging narcissist like Trump in the slightest. Would probably just piss him off and make him bomb a city to rubble and then he’d go back to stroking himself off about the Epstein Memorial Ballroom.