How US Air Force officers were rescued after being shot down in Iran | WATCH

On April 2, as the Iran-US war intensified, two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down by an Iranian shoulder-fired missile in the south of Isfahan and two US officers were stranded after ejecting safely. Now, declassified videos shared for the first time by CBS News on Monday (Sep 14) has shown the dramatic rescue.The pilots landed roughly five miles apart and have been identified only by their operational call signs, Alpha and Bravo. While the Iranian forces launched a search operation for them, US forces also planned a rescue operation.

Declassified video shows high-risk, daytime penetration deep into hostile territory to secure the F-15E’s pilot, callsign Alpha. Another infrared footage shows the exact moment the weapon systems officer, Bravo, was rescued after evading capture for nearly two days with a broken back. This one details two elite U.S. Air Force Pararescue operators (PJs) advancing up a steep, 7,000-foot mountain ridgeline, physically grabbing the wounded officer, and guiding him safely onto a rescue helicopter. The footage also documents the aftermath: a makeshift desert airstrip, where two massive MC-130J special operations transport aircraft became disabled.

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How CIA rescued the pilot?

Earlier in April, two US officials told CNN that special operations forces carried out the successful rescue mission. The CIA operatives mounted a deception campaign beforehand to throw off potential Iranian captors. CIA operatives circulated the information inside Iran that both crew members had been recovered to confuse Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members who were frantically themselves looking to capture the downed officer. Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos extracted the ejected US F-15E pilot from Iran, said a New York Times report, though there was no confirmation from the US authorities. The CIA ultimately identified the officer’s exact location and shared the information with the military.

Meanwhile, at a remote airstrip in Iran, two MC-130J special operations transport aircraft had been waiting to take the commandos and the rescued airman out of the country. But they had been damaged during the operation. The military decided to send in new planes and blew up the damaged ones to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. “WE GOT HIM!” President Trump wrote on social media after spending Saturday monitoring the operation from the White House. “Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History,” he said.