Published On 3/6/2026
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Last update: 04:21 (Mecca time)
CBS News revealed that the American pilot whose F-15E fighter jet was shot down in the airspace of Iran in early April had been involved in a previous downing incident just weeks before, when his plane was hit by Kuwaiti friendly fire at the beginning of the war against Iran.
The network quoted informed sources as saying that the pilot was part of the crew of one of three American F-15E Strike Eagle fighters that was mistakenly shot down over Kuwait in the first days of the war on Iran, as a result of a friendly fire incident in which the Kuwaiti air defenses and a Kuwaiti fighter participated, and he and five members of the air crew were able to parachute and survive.
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Activists circulated on social media platforms at the time, video scenes showing the moment a warplane crashed in Kuwait, with flames rising from its tail before its pilots jumped with parachutes.
The F-15E Strike Eagle is a dual-mission fighter, designed to carry out air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, and a set of avionics and electronic systems gives it superior ability to fight at low altitudes, day or night, and in various weather conditions, according to what the US Air Force website states.
Drop in Iran
More than 30 days after that accident, the same pilot returned to carrying out a combat mission over Iran, and his plane was directly hit by an Iranian surface-to-air missile on April 3, forcing him and his companion to jump out of the plane again.
According to CBS News, the pilot was seriously injured, but was rescued after hours of a complex search and rescue operation, while the second crew member remained hidden inside Iranian territory for about two days before American forces were able to rescue him.
Retired US Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula described the incident as a “very strange coincidence,” noting that he does not remember a similar case of a pilot whose plane was shot down twice during the same military campaign since the Vietnam War, most likely.
Deptula concluded his talk to the network with a striking analogy, saying that what happened to the American pilot “is like being struck by lightning twice,” in reference to the rarity of this type of military and exceptional events witnessed in the American war on Iran.
On March 2, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense announced that a number of American warplanes had been shot down and that all of their crews had survived. The US Central Command then confirmed that the fighters had been shot down by Kuwaiti air defense fire.
A Central Command statement said that day that 3 American planes were shot down over Kuwait by “friendly fire,” noting that “Kuwait air defenses shot down the fighters by mistake during active combat operations.”
A month later, on April 3, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that it had shot down a highly advanced American F-35 warplane using its advanced air defense system, noting that “the fighter plane belongs to the Lakenheath squadron.”
Hours after American media reported that the plane had crashed and one of its pilots had been rescued, the US military acknowledged the incident, according to what was reported by the Associated Press, and American reports confirmed that the fighter was an F-15E Eagle.
