US Air Force Officer Recounts Surviving Behind Enemy Lines in Iran

The American air force colonel whose fighter jet was downed over Iran in April has shared how survived for two days behind enemy lines with a broken back, arm and shoulder while waiting for help to arrive.

‘Bravo’ was the weapons-system officer in a two-man crew flying over Iran on 3 April when their F-15E Strike Eagle was hit by Iranian fire. The pilot in the front - ‘Alpha’ - ejected successfully, but Bravo came down in the mountains.

In his first public account of what happened, he told CBS News’ 60 Minutes how he free-fell to the ground at speeds of up to 100mph with a damaged parachute, torn up by an Iranian shoulder-fired missile.

“At one point when I looked up and saw no parachute, that was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen,” he said. “So I paused, right then, and I prayed, 'Lord, your will be done. But if I'm getting through this, I need help.'"

The officer broke his back, an arm and his shoulder after hitting the ground at speed but miraculously survived the fall. Finding himself in a valley with cliffs on either side, he knew that he would have to reach the high ground despite his injuries.

“Never let a lack of motivation put you on Iranian TV,” he said, recalling his climb up to the 7,000ft ridgeline with only a handgun to defend himself.

“I had injuries, but we all train to adapt and overcome the things that we're faced with. I moved as quickly as I could, despite the injuries, away from the place that I landed.”

The pilot had ejected from the $31m Strike Eagle after making every attempt to avoid it going down, Bravo said. The impact of the missile felt like getting hit by a “freight train”.

Alpha was rescued under fire by two military helicopters that day but it would be another 50 hours before Bravo would be safe. As Iranian forces closed in on his position, the officer focused on getting a message back to base to signal he was alive: ‘God is good.’

He would spend another full day in the mountains with almost no water or food before the US military arrived. According to CBS, the CIA played a key role in the mission, using top-secret technology to find Bravo while distracting Iran with a deception campaign.

“This was the ultimate ‘needle in a haystack’, but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for [the] CIA’s capabilities,” a senior Trump administration official told NBC previously.