U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran Describes Harrowing 50-Hour Rescue in First Interview
The U.S. airman who was rescued from Iran after his aircraft was shot down in April gave his first detailed account of the operation on Sunday, describing a terrifying fall, a painful escape on foot and a 50-hour wait before American commandos reached him.
Speaking to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the weapons systems officer used the call sign “Bravo” to protect his identity. He said his parachute was damaged after the jet was hit, forcing him to struggle during free fall to “unfurl or pull pieces of the parachute loose.”
“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. The fall broke his back, an arm and a shoulder, he said, and left him with a sprained ankle and bloody scrapes on his head and face.
After ejecting from the F-15, Bravo managed to avoid encroaching Iranian forces by climbing a 7,000-foot ridge despite his injuries. He had little more than a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon, according to previous accounts from U.S. officials and his interview Sunday. The pilot was rescued shortly after the crash; Bravo was recovered 50 hours later.
The Pentagon has not publicly identified either crew member, citing concerns for their safety and the need to protect sensitive information.
“As soon as I found a spot that I felt provided some concealment, I started working toward communication,” Bravo told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell. When he finally had a moment to review what he had endured, he said, he sent a simple message: “God is good.”
The account offers a rare window into the risks of combat search-and-rescue missions, which depend on speed, secrecy and coordination among special operations, intelligence and air power. It also highlights the difficult balance officials face in publicizing a dramatic rescue while protecting the tactics, sources and methods that made it possible.
The interview has also drawn attention to internal deliberations in Washington. CNN reported Saturday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and political appointees in his department pushed for the two crew members to take part in the exclusive, highly publicized segment, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Both airmen initially expressed reservations, and military officials were wary of revealing classified details of the rescue effort, three of the sources said. The pilot declined to participate. CNN also reported that political appointees in Hegseth’s office insisted the interview move forward despite concerns raised by the military’s chain of command.
Asked about CNN’s reporting on the plans for the segment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell denied the account.
“This entire story is a complete lie,” Parnell said. “The decision to participate in the interview was each pilot’s alone — because it is their story,” he added. “As CNN notes, one pilot decided to participate and one did not. Additionally, the Department took great care to ensure operational security, sources, and methods were protected.”
Bravo told CBS he hid alone in a mountain crevice for hours while elite American service members, backed by U.S. aircraft dropping bombs to clear the area, raced to find him.
The rescue involved hundreds of U.S. military and intelligence personnel, including special operations forces such as Army Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team Six. CIA operatives mounted a deception campaign beforehand to mislead Iran, whose leaders had offered a bounty for the airman’s capture.
The CBS broadcast included declassified Pentagon video showing elite Air Force pararescue operators moving toward Bravo. He declined to share what the service members said to him when they finally arrived.
The operation included complications. The U.S. military destroyed two damaged MC-130J special operations transport aircraft that had been waiting to carry the commandos and the rescued airman out of the country. The planes were damaged at some point during the mission, briefly stranding all 90-plus special operators. After they were eventually rescued, the U.S. chose to destroy the broken aircraft to keep them from falling into Iranian hands and sent in new planes.
For Bravo, the ordeal is one he says will stay with him. The moment he saw his rescuers arrive on the ridgeline where he was hiding, he said, “was one of the greatest moments of my life, and I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than ‘thank you’ for all that they did.”
CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Brian Stelter and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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