uticusF-15E Wreckage Photos Amid Iranian Claims It Shot Down an American Fighter
Also reported at https://theaviationist.com/2026/04/03/iran-f-15e-debris/
C-130s and helicopters flying low over Iran right after they shot down an F-15 in the same spot is wild. Whatever I think of the war idiocy, that's brave.
It's breaking news...meaning it may be inaccurate. CENTCOM certainly is saying it's false [0]. But there are enough signs of it being genuine, to be concerning at this stage.
Flying low over Iran at this point is planned, expensive "standoff" munitions were planned to give way to more accurate and less expensive munitions once air superiority was reached - which U.S. has been claiming has happened for a while now.
U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) on X
🚫 CLAIM: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it downed an "enemy" fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. ✅ FACT: All U.S. fighter aircraft are accounted for. Iran's IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times.
Update: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/us-fighter-jet-went-ir...
> An F-15 fighter jet pilot has been rescued alive by the U.S. military after their aircraft went down over Iran, a U.S. official said Friday.
> White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident — the latest dramatic development in the war, now more than a month old.
CENTCOM lied.
The government would never lie: the "damaged" plane was already accounted for, just in the ground, in enemy territory.