A U.S. F-15 pilot shot down by Iran in April has described an extraordinary and unsettling account of what he says he saw during the mission.
According to his account, moments before ejecting safely, he observed a formation of Iranian drones flying in coordination while holding a shape that resembled a jellyfish.
‘Multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,’ a source told CNN, describing the pilot’s recollection. ‘Real alien s***.’
The pilot was later recovered from a remote mountainous area inside Iran following a high-stakes rescue mission. He reportedly trekked roughly 70 miles across Iranian terrain over 36 hours before help arrived.
The rescue effort involved a major deployment of U.S. air assets, with 155 aircraft taking part, including 64 fighter jets, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and three helicopters.
U.S. intelligence officials have not reached a firm conclusion on exactly how the F-15 was brought down.
Authorities were also cautious in weighing the pilot’s description, noting that a concussion suffered in the crash could have influenced his memory of the event.
In a striking detail, CNN also reported that the April episode marked the second time the same pilot had been shot down during the Iran war.
He was one of the pilots downed by Kuwaiti friendly fire at the beginning of March.
A United States Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jet during a training exercise
An Iranian Shahed drone
Iranian state media shared footage of the planes left behind during the US rescue operation in March
After the CIA located the pilot and began feeding the Iranians false information that the pilot had been rescued, US special forces made a rescue.
The rescue party was forced to leave behind multiple aircraft, destroying them before flying to safety.
A group of drones moving in formation, as the pilot reportedly saw, is called ‘one-to-many meshed networking,’ which can allow one operator to guide multiple drones at once.
Russia and China are believed to have this capability, but Iran was not previously assessed as having the technology to achieve meshed networking.
Trump lauded ‘a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force’ as US forces swooped into mountainous terrain in southern Iran to rescue the weapons systems officer (WSO) whose F-15E fighter jet went down on Good Friday.
‘He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, contacted his platoon, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces,’ Trump said of the still unidentified officer, who was rescued on Easter Sunday.
Donald Trump lauded the operation to rescue two downed US service members in Iran over the weekend. ‘God was watching us,’ he said of the miraculous operation
An F-15 airman was rescued in a daring mission after the fighter jet was shot down by Iranian forces
Trump admitted that there were military officers who were opposed to the operation which he said risked hundreds of lives. ‘God was watching us,’ the President said.
The President noted how the weapons officer was able to activate a ‘beeper’ that showed US forces where to search for him, leading to the airman’s rescue and likely saving the soldier’s life. ‘It was like finding a needle in a haystack,’ Trump said.
The pilot’s strange sighting comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has made it a top priority to declassify troves of data on alleged UFO sightings.
One such sighting in 2023 involved a glowing orb that passed in and out of sight several times, appearing to spawn smaller orbs.
A video released in May appears to show a US fighter jet destroying a UFO with an air-to-air missile in Michigan.
