Apparently it’s confirmed an F15 has been shot down:
According to Israeli sources the pilot has been rescued, navigator is still missing. I pray the Iranian people find the navigator before the junta does.
1 Like
I just saw on Israeli news video from the crash site, a C130 refueling plane with 2 helicopters . I don’t know if it is USA or Israeli. Israeli troops are searching for the navigator, in addition to the Americans searching.
Pilot rescued, WSO still missing. We don’t however know what happened, whether it was a malfunction or lucky hit by a shoulder fired rocket of some sort. We do know that we’re flying B-52s, KC-135s and all of our other non-stealth aircraft continuously over Iran and our CSAR were able to find and extract the 1 pilot quickly without any danger so I think we can be pretty confident that Iran doesn’t have any high-end hidden air defense units that we’ve overlooked. Praying we find and bring back the WSO safely soon as well.
1 Like
Well there is a report that one of the CSAR Blackhawks was hit and the crew is safe. Not sure if it went down or had to GFTO of the area as a result.
An A10 was shot down also, pilot retrieved.
How do the pilot and navigator end up so far apart they rescue one but not the other?
Altitude, winds, and not simultaneous (nearly simultaneous to be exact) ejection could put one guy on one side of a mountain while the second guy is on the other side. Might only be a couple miles at most but “linking up” is not something vital to SERE, unless they are within eyesight of each other of course. Therefore you have two guys separated, each with their own E&E plan in their heads.
1 Like
They can’t exit at the same time, usually the backseater goes first, then the pilot, now imagine you’re flying 20 miles a second and there is a 4 second sequence of events for the ejection seat sequence to complete so now you’re like 50 miles apart.
One scenario: pilot stays in the cockpit to maintain control of the aircraft until the weapons officer has safely ejected. At 500 MPH the plane is traveling about 8 miles per minute. If the pilot punched out 2 minutes after the back-seater, he (or she - let’s not be sexist) could end up 10 - 20 miles away.
Disclaimer: this is pure 100 percent speculation on my part. I have no experience to speak from, and this is just my WAG (Wild Ass Guess).
Err, that would equal 72,000 MPH. The F-15E tops out below that. 
Yeah that Math in my head on the fly thing…not good.
That made me laugh out loud… when I read your initial post I was like, whaaaaat??? Not even Maverick flew that fast - he was only at 7600 mph at Mach 10. lol.
Bailing out from a spaceship maybe! (sorry, had to pile on!) 
F-15 weapons systems officer rescued
Hell yeah.
Suck it Muzzies.
Guess who is going to be the CO of AF SERE school in a few years?
1 Like
Apparently A-10s were strafing the f$%! out of convoys of IRGC/Basij that were trying to get to the area to capture our downed WSO and the roads leading to the area now look like the Iraqi Highway of Death or so I’ve been told… 
My Dad worked with a guy who had been a paratrooper in the 1950’s who had been told or concocted in his head that they landed at 65mph.
As someone who did jump out of perfectly good aircraft I can tell you it wasn’t 65mph. It is a somewhat “controlled” descent that is hard to equate to mph or even height. If you land properly, with your adrenaline pumping, it isn’t that bad (as a 20yo of course, would hurt like hell now). What surface you land on makes a difference too….landing in a field of tall kuna grass is one thing, hitting a sun-baked cow pasture is another.
I believe pilots come down in their ejection seats. Not sure if the seat is spring-loaded or not but normally your legs held absorb the impact; in an ejection seat it would seem your back would be absorbing the blow.
That story wasn’t shared to indicate belief in the notion.
He couldn’t explain how his belief of a 65mph landing usually unscathed worked versus being hit by a vehicle at 65mph(or stepping out of a vehicle at 65mph) usually resulting in serious injuries or death.