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F-15E jet shot down over Iran

F-15E jet shot down over Iran

tjwds

Comments (1045)

  • roadbuster
    During the entire gulf war (Iraq, 1990-91), only two F-15s were shot down via surface-to-air engagement. At the time, Baghdad was known to have the highest density of SAM protection out of any city in the world.An F-15 being shot down in Iran after weeks of strategic bombing of their anti-air defense systems is not a good sign.
  • MarkMarine
    Military aviators train for this, being alone behind enemy lines (look up SERE school if you’re curious, one of the craziest training courses outside of special forces) and there is a special force just for aviator recovery behind enemy lines, US AirForce Pararescue. Hopefully they’ll get the aviators back quickly, the last thing our country needs is American hostages making this ridiculous war harder to stop.
  • lejalv
    So how is this not flagged, whereas this other post lasted literally minutes before being flagged? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4761205375000+ palestinians killed, arguably one of the defining crimes of our age are not worth HN discussion (“politics”) but one F15E shot down in a war of choice is (apparently, “tech”)?
  • DASD
    List of aviation shootdowns and accidents during the 2026 Iran war:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_shootdowns_an...Iran: 40, Israel: 18, US: 36, Others: 7
  • pwarner
    I hope the aviators are OK, and also hope whoever they were bombing are also OK.I do wonder if Iran finds them first, will they treat them better than the US treated survivors of the ship sunk by a US torpedo in the Indiana Ocean?
  • rhcom2
    One crew member rescued, other is still MIA and being actively searched for https://www.axios.com/2026/04/03/iran-us-fighter-shot-down
  • thatsfunnylol
    The Hormuz issue proves that the west never had an ability to economically sanction Iran, au contraire Iran can actually sanction us - and they are.This is what real sanctions look like. The west broke the deal, attacked like terrorists, and are now being sanctioned.
  • tejohnso
    Impossible. Iran's army was already demolished weeks ago, and there's "nothing left". What did they take it down with, bb guns?
  • markus_zhang
    I think an A-10 is also down (pilot ejected and safe). I'm surprised that they decided to fly an A-10 into Iran. I mean it's a solid plane that can sustain some AD fire, but at the same time it usually operates within the height that MANPADs can reach.
  • wesselbindt
    The article says this is the first jet that was shot down by enemy fire this war, but this confuses me. Was the F35 that was downed a while back friendly fire or something? Are F35s not fighter jets?
  • ulrischa
    There were thousands of iranian jets shot down but the worlds go crazy when a single us jetzt was shot down
  • zaelochi
    Average comments sentiment when an American is caught having killed a clerk during a robbery: hope they fry him on the chairAverage comments sentiment when an American is caught while bombing bridges and elementary schools: poor thing hope they treat him well
  • eek2121
    I see a ton of bickering, however, I simply have to ask the question: how can anyone justify the United States of America and Israel attacking ANY country? It isn't our job, nor is it Israel's, to try and be the world police. People are dying, and because of a certain corpse-to-be controlling MY country, the world is beginning to suffer and it is going to get so much worse. Some economists are saying gas rationing will begin happening within the next 9-15 months. Iran has NO incentive to be diplomatic. On top of that, invisible damage that nobody is reporting about is being done...damage that could last years or possibly decades to very small, yet super important parts of the world supply chain that powers everything from fertilizer to pharmaceuticals. There is not a single person in the world that should be supporting this war. I don't care what your beliefs are. The results WILL affect you, and you won't get a bailout.
  • karp773
    Why didn't Iran use its capability to take down enemy jets for an entire month?
  • vkr2020
    apparently, Iran is claiming that the search and rescue helicopter has also been hit by a projectile.
  • dlev_pika
    Second one in 24hrs…and that’s with their “anti-air defenses destroyed”, per our Commander in Chief
  • AnonyMD
    Although Iran is a tenacious nation, the United States is weakening. The United States of the past would not have made such a mistake.
  • uticus
    Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-news-2026?mod=WSJ_..."U.S. Conducting Rescue Operation After Jet Went Down Over Iran"
  • uticus
  • anovikov
    The scale of American air dominance is best demonstrated by how much of a news this event is. In 1999 the scandal was that Serbs managed to shoot down a stealthy plane with then-30 year old Soviet SAM. Now being able to shoot down a nonstealthy one having most modern Russian SAMs in existence is news worthy of being on every screen for 24 hours and collecting 1000+ comments on HN.Warplanes are disposable. They are built to be shot down. If they aren't, they are not being used intensely enough or are just wrong tools for the job - a warplane that flies a mission and always comes back is like a test that never fails.
  • anon
    undefined
  • uticus
  • victorbjorklund
    If true I can’t imagine it will play well even among Trumps base. When was the last time a US fighter jet was shot down? 1999 during the intervention in the balkans?
  • alchemism
    cough and an A10
  • cosmicgadget
    That Kuwaiti F-18 pilot is a bit far from home.
  • up2isomorphism
    LLM won’t help.
  • 1970-01-01
    Any rescue operation is technically 'boots on the ground'
  • thatmf
    Is this not just FAFO?
  • soupfordummies
    At what point is congress gonna grow a spine and retake their power? Every day the goalposts just get moved a little farther.
  • mothballed
    If the pilots are recovered we probably won't hear about it from either side for hours. Iran will want to get them a mile underground before they send out the B-rolls. If recovered by the US, they will want them out of theater before anyone knows better so they can't be targeted.
  • verdverm
    CNN is reporting this confirmed by three US sourceshttps://www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/politics/us-fighter-jet-iran
  • zoklet-enjoyer
    Oh well, it was bound to happen. We need to get the Hell out of there.
  • Ms-J
    Maybe they shouldn't be attacking Iran? Duhhhhhh.
  • anon
    undefined
  • solid_fuel
    I'm an American and a patriot and the way I want to see this end is with Pete Hegseth and others from this nightmare administration delivered to the Hague, in chains.
  • JohnTHaller
    Let's hope Iran doesn't follow the "no quarter, no mercy" policy laid out by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. For the unfamiliar, it means executing survivors and surrendering combatants. Aka war crimes.
  • josefritzishere
    This is the dumbest, most pointless military conflict in American history. There is nothing plausible to win, but we can conceivably lose everything. A pyric victory is among the most favorable outcomes. We are led by corrupt imbeciles. I can only hope the outcome includes regime change for the U.S.
  • epolanski
    > A particular concern, they said, was threats made by the US to Iran’s energy infrastructure. “International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes.”I am not going to lie, I am beyond disgusted at the United States.And the "it's Trump" card doesn't work, Americans defend this travesty of an old non functioning constitution.
  • standardUser
    Via the NYT: Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and a key government figure overseeing the war, took to social media to mock the Trump administration as U.S. forces searched for a missing American airman from a downed fighter plane. “This brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”he said in a post on X. “Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”
  • shevy-java
    One less to bomb schools with girls.I feel that the current war is by far the most closest to showing to people that this war is waged by the rich. Because they are the primary ones to benefit right now (if we ignore Netanyahu, but Netanyahu's war goals "make sense", e. g. this is done for expansion and/or control; Trump's involvement makes no real sense, except for benefitting some with insider trading and making other cronies rich).
  • anon
    undefined
  • mwizamwiinga
    [flagged]
  • npn
    the last time US wanted some country to reset back to Stone Age the same thing happened. turn out those aircrafts are not undefeatable at all.
  • uticus
    why is this not showing at top of HN search sorted by date?https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
  • uticus
  • ChrisArchitect
  • aaron695
    [dead]
  • sokitsip
    Why is the US there again? Open up a straight that was open?Not expecting a reply.
  • llm_nerd
    [flagged]
  • einpoklum
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  • ChrisArchitect
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  • jimt1234
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  • jeffbee
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  • throw03172019
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  • amelius
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  • dayyan
    [flagged]
  • LightBug1
    Don't worry. It's ok. Just think ... Top Gun Maverick.
  • hereme888
    Iran, who armed itself to the teeth, shoots down a 30-yr-old fighter jet. Crew expected to have survived.Acceptable win ratio for the U.S. (whom many of you despise).
  • Rover222
    There are fairly credible X posts now saying the 2nd pilot has also been rescued. Pretty impressive.