A pilot was safely recovered after an A-10 Warthog aircraft crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, news outlets reported, though it remains unclear what its mission was at the time of the incident.
Up-to-date reporting in the Iran conflict, which often relies on unnamed sources, remain subject to the fog of war.
The New York Times reported unnamed “U.S. officials” did not say what caused the Warthog to go down.
However, CBS news reported Saturday morning that the A-10 took enemy fire during a search and rescue mission for the missing second crew member of a U.S. F-15E fighter jet shot down over Iran earlier Friday.
It has been widely reported that the pilot of the F-15 ejected and was rescued by American forces. The second crew member, a weapons system officer, remains missing and is the subject of an intense search mission, according to Pentagon sources.
The A-10 Warthog was “part of the search and rescue mission when it took fire and was damaged,” CBS reported. The A-10 pilot ejected over the Persian Gulf and was recovered, according to the network.
Fox News, however, is reporting only the Warthog simply “crashed,” the pilot was recovered, and the “exact location” of the incident “remains unclear.” The network did not report it was part of a rescue effort or that it came under fire.
Meanwhile, NBC reported the A-10 Warthog was part of the search and rescue mission for the missing crew member and after it was “struck by enemy fire” the aircraft made it to Kuwaiti airspace.
The pilot ejected, according to the network, and the jet went down in Kuwait.
Also, two U.S. military Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search and rescue efforts were also struck by Iranian fire, but the crews were “unharmed,” NBC reported.
Fox News, however, that incident resulted in some casualties.
Fox’s long-time Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported the choppers looking for the missing crew member “came under enemy fire,” “sustained damage,” and “some crew members were reportedly injured, but the aircraft were able to land safely.”
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRG) claimed it shot down the F-15 and circulated photos and video on social media and on Iranian state news outlets showing wreckage of the jet and one of the aircraft’s ejection seats.
Early in Operation Epic Fury, three U.S. F-15s were shot down over Kuwait when they came under friendly fire, but there were no casualties in that incident.
Air and Space Force Magazine reported the low number of significant losses of U.S. aircraft so far in the Iran conflict needs to be “put in context” considering “thousands of combat sorties” already flown.
The aerospace magazine pointed out current losses were virtually nonexistent compared to the “significant number” of aircraft lost to enemy fire in previous wars, including 1700 fixed wing losses in Vietnam.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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