A U.S. pilot rescued after his aircraft was brought down over Iran reportedly described a disturbing encounter with Iranian drones, saying they appeared to move in coordinated, jellyfish-like clusters.
“Multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,” a source familiar with the pilot’s account told CNN.
The source summed up the scene bluntly: “Real alien s–t.”
The F-15 pilot recounted the unnerving episode during an intelligence debrief after the April incident, CNN reported, raising questions about whether Iran has made notable advances in its military drone operations.
Investigators are still working to determine exactly how the fighter jet went down, but the aerial formation — described by one source as a “minefield of drones” suspended in the sky — may have played a role in the shootdown.
The pilot and a weapons systems officer ejected from the aircraft on Good Friday, marking the first time during the conflict that a U.S. plane had been shot down in Iranian airspace.
The pilot was recovered within hours on April 3, while the weapons officer, who suffered serious injuries, spent more than a day hiding in the Zagros Mountains after Iran reportedly put a bounty on him.
CNN reported that it remains unclear whether the weapons officer also saw the Iranian drone formation.
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Intelligence officials have been debating what to make of the pilot’s account, and whether he remembered the incident clearly after suffering a concussion in the crash.
The same pilot had been involved in a friendly-fire incident in Kuwait on March 2 in which Kuwait’s defense forces accidentally fired on three F-15E Strike Eagle jets. All six crew members were forced to eject and landed safely within the allied nation.
During the rescue operation for the pilot, a US helicopter was struck by small arms fire but landed safely, despite several crew members being wounded.
The search for the weapons officer, who had a $60,000 price on his head, was significantly more difficult and dramatic, involving SEAL Team 6, a CIA ruse, and a forward airstrip quickly constructed in hostile territory.
The officer reportedly managed to scale a 7,000-foot ridge to evade capture for 36 hours with just a handgun for defense while American drones pounded nearby Iranian forces with missiles if they got close to his position.
At the same time, the CIA pulled off a diversion — planting fake intel that he had already been rescued and was being driven out of Iran, the New York Times reported.
The operation involved landing multiple transport aircraft on an ad-hoc landing strip deep in Iranian territory just south of the city of Isfahan after the officer’s emergency beacon was tracked to the mountain.
Two MC-130J helicopters — each worth around $100 million — were demolished in place so as not to fall into enemy hands after they became stuck on the strip.
There were no US deaths among the rescue team, and all the commandos and the weapons officer involved returned safely, officials said.
