‘Holy s**t moment’: How US operation to rescue F-15E pilot from Iran almost went wrong

The US military operation to rescue the F-15E pilot that was shot down in Iran almost ended in a disaster before special forces managed to safely leave the Iranian territory with the injured airman. The high-risk mission took place deep inside the enemy territory as hundreds of American commandos scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge to extract the crew member who was stranded in Iran. US officials revealed that the mission that unfolded with near‑perfect precision nearly veered off course due to mechanical issues.

According to a Reuters report, the plan included US forces infiltrating undetected and bringing the US pilot to a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday. However, the two MC-130 aircraft, which had ferried some of the roughly 100 special forces personnel into rugged terrain south of Tehran, encountered a mechanical failure and could not take off. This risked the commandos being stuck behind enemy lines.

A high-risk decision was then made by the commanders to fly additional aircraft into Iran and extract the group in waves. This meant that the US team had to wait for some hours before they were taken out of Iranian territory.

“If there was a ‘holy s**t’ moment, that was it,” the official told Reuters, crediting quick decision-making for saving the day. ​The US troops destroyed disabled the MC‑130s and four additional helicopters inside Iran to prevent leaving sensitive equipment behind in enemy territory.

US pilot’s ‘God is good’ message raised fears of capture

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Apr 5) revealed that the United States was initially sceptical about a message from the stranded F-15E weapons system officer. In an interview following the rescue of the US pilot, Trump told Axios that the US was worried that the Iranians were playing a trick to lure US forces into a trap when they received a message from the serviceman stranded in Iran.

The weapons system officer sent a short, unusual message over his radio after ejecting from the aircraft over Iran. Trump said that the US military had “beeping information” about his location. However, after his radio message, officials suspected he might have been captured and Iranians were “sending false signals” to try to lure U.S. forces into a trap.

According to Trump, the pilot’s message on the radio “sounded like something a Muslim would say.” However, people who knew the officer said that it wasn’t an unusual phrase for the pilot and that he was a religious person.

After it was confirmed that the pilot was alive and not captured by Iran, the rescue operation took place swiftly to locate him and bring him back.

Trump said that around 200 troops from special operations units took part in the rescue mission. The officer hid in a crevice in the mountain for more than 24 hours to evade capture by the Iranians.

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