A U.S. F-35, similar to the one pictured, made an emergency landing on Thursday after flying a combat mission over Iran. The pilot landed the aircraft safely and is in stable condition, U.S. Central Command said. Photo by U.S. Air Force
A U.S. F-35 aircraft made an emergency landing after a combat mission over Iran on Thursday, with Iranian forces taking credit for hitting it.
If the claim is correct, this would be the first U.S. aircraft that Iran has hit since the United States and Israel launched a war on the nation’s regime nearly four weeks ago.
The United States has lost a handful of aircraft in the war, including one crash that claimed the lives of six U.S. servicemembers, but none have been hit by Iran.
“We are aware of reports that a U.S. F-35 aircraft conducted an emergency landing at a regional U.S. airbase after flying a combat mission over Iran,” U.S. Central Command Spokesperson U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins told UPI in a statement.
“The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition,” Hawkins said. “This incident is under investigation.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard said it “struck and seriously damaged” an F-35 on a mission over the country, CNN and NBC reported, which would be the first U.S. or Israeli aircraft that Iran has hit since the war started on Feb. 28.
Both the United States and Israel fly variations of the F-35 stealth fighter.
Four U.S. aircraft have been confirmed to have crashed in the weeks-long war.
A U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft crashed on March 13, killing six U.S. service members, after colliding with another U.S. military aircraft over western Iraq.
That crash was 10 days after three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles crashed in Kuwait in a friendly fire incident after Kuwaiti air defenses misidentified the aircraft. All six servicemembers were rescued after safely ejecting before their aircraft went down.
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