Trump Expresses Concern F-15 Pilot's Signal May Have Been Iranian Trap

Behind the Rescue of the F-15 Pilot

"If the Operation Had Failed, It Would Have Been the Worst-Case Scenario for the U.S. Military"

AP Yonhap News

U.S. President Donald Trump stated on the 5th (local time) that he had concerns about the possibility that the rescue signal from the pilot of the F-15 fighter jet shot down in Iran could have been a trap set by Iran.

In an interview with Axios that day, President Trump said, "The U.S. military detected a beeping signal related to the officer's location," adding, "However, officials raised the possibility that the officer had been taken prisoner by Iran and expressed concern that the Iranian side might be sending a false signal to lure our forces into a trap."

President Trump also revealed that around 200 U.S. special operations troops participated in the rescue operation. He further explained that the officer was hiding in a mountain crevice and that the U.S. was able to locate him using advanced technology.

Previously, on the 3rd, a U.S. F-15 fighter jet was shot down by an Iranian military missile in the mountainous region of southern Iran. Two pilots ejected from the fighter jet. One was rescued immediately, but the other went missing. Both the U.S. and Iranian militaries conducted an intense search operation.

According to ISNA, Iran's state-run news agency, Iranian authorities offered a reward of 1 trillion toman (approximately 100 million won) to anyone who provided information about the missing U.S. pilot. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also sealed off the area around the F-15 crash site and joined local residents in the search.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted a deception operation, spreading false information that the pilot had already been rescued and was being transported, in order to mislead the Iranian side. It is reported that the U.S. military later determined the actual hiding location and relayed the information to the Department of Defense. A Pentagon official told Axios, "Initially, the situation was unclear, but we trusted the information and confirmed that he was alive and had not been taken prisoner."

Although the rescue operation was successful, some pointed out that failure would have resulted in the worst-case scenario for the U.S. military. The Wall Street Journal reported, "If videos of U.S. service members captured by the enemy had been released, Iran could have used them as a powerful propaganda tool and a bargaining chip," adding, "They would have tried to extract maximum concessions using the pilot hostage incident as leverage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.