A U.S. fighter jet was shot down in Iran and a second aircraft was downed in the Persian Gulf on Friday. American forces have launched a search and rescue effort that’s already found one crew member on the first plane, according to the Associated Press. The fighter jet’s second crew member is still unaccounted for. The New York Times reports the lone pilot of the second plane was already rescued.
Photos and videos circulating online show pieces of the wreckage from the first plane, reportedly an F-15E, that appear to be legitimate. But fake images and video about the downed jet are also starting to spread on social media, including one video that purports to show an American pilot captured by pro-Iran forces
“The American pilot is in the custody of the Sons of Haidar al-Karrar,” one X account claimed in a tweet on Friday.
The video shows a person with their arms raised in a field of green grass while approaching someone who looks like they have a gun drawn. The video is pixelated and it’s shot from a distance, making it impossible to see faces or other distinguishing features.
⛔ NOW
▪️The American pilot is in the custody of the Sons of Haidar al-Karrar pic.twitter.com/hLUgreAmfb— SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) April 3, 2026
The video doesn’t show pro-Iran forces and has nothing to do with the ongoing war, first launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. As BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh points out, the video is actually from the India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025.
A longer version of the video appeared on the subreddit r/IndiaSpeaks eight months ago.
Iranian state media initially claimed in the early morning hours of Friday (US eastern coast time) that the downed jet was an F-35 and footage was aired showing an aircraft being struck. Some anonymous open source researchers claim the video was AI-generated but that couldn’t be verified at this time.
Iran said it shot down a US Air Force fighter jet over its territory and released images that appear to show the wreckage of a jet that online commentators say is an F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron. Analysts said debris in the video matches the F-15E’s design.… pic.twitter.com/fdaK72MSmF
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 3, 2026
Another fake video circulated widely on X Friday, proclaiming, “The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) announce the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet on Qeshm Island.”
But the video appears to be video game footage, most likely from the series Arma, a military tactical shooter that’s been around since the 2000s. The audio is what really gives it away, as an off-screen character shouts “target hit!” and “target destroyed” in an extremely artificial way.
Presenting Arma footage as real combat video has been common since the late 2010s.
🚨‼️ BREAKING 💥
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) announce the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet on Qeshm Island. pic.twitter.com/Uvf71IlXrj— GBX (@GBX_Press) April 3, 2026
CNN reports that the one crew member from the F-15E who was rescued Friday is alive and receiving medical treatment. The status of the second F-15E crew member is still unknown. It was initially unclear if the Iranian military was successful in downing the aircraft or if it suffered an unrelated malfunction, but the Associated Press reported Friday afternoon that a Pentagon memo referred to a U.S. aircraft being “shot down.”
The first sign that a U.S. fighter jet had been downed popped up on social media early Friday, where photos of debris from an F-15E and an ejection seat started to circulate. CNN confirmed that the seat was consistent with an F-15E. TV broadcasters in Iran said there was a reward being offered for anyone who captured the pilots.
This image published by Iranian state media appears to show a damaged fighter jet ejection seat on the ground.
A @cnn analysis of the image indicates the seat in the picture is consistent with a model used in an F-15E fighter jethttps://t.co/sl6lol8KVT pic.twitter.com/h8phrvQWpt
— Allegra Goodwin (@goodwinallegra) April 3, 2026
There are few details about the second plane that went down in the Persian Gulf. The aircraft is a A-10 Warthog attack plane, according to the New York Times, which went down around the same time as the F-15E. It’s unclear what caused it to crash.
Not everything circulating online is reliable, obviously. Separate claims that Iran shot down one of the helicopters conducting search and rescue operations have not been confirmed by trustworthy news sources, but they’re also spreading on social media.
The Pentagon was planning to put out a statement Friday morning about the downing of the jet, according to Fox News, but abandoned that plan for unknown reasons.
Some X users have tried to use Grok to verify information that’s circulating on the social media platform, sometimes with wildly unrealistic expectations. For example, one of the first reporters (if not the first) to claim that an F-15E crew member had been recovered alive was Amit Segal with Israel’s N12 News. Someone replied, “Can you confirm this? @grok,” which went unanswered for quite a while because there was no way for the AI bot to confirm the information since it was breaking news told to a reporter, not aired anywhere.
People often treat AI bots as omniscient entities that can instantly fact-check information being reported by journalists on X. But generative AI chatbots are unreliable even at the best of times and completely worthless in a breaking news environment.
The duration of the ongoing war is anyone’s guess. President Donald Trump insists that Iran has been defeated militarily, but military experts say that’s not the case. Iran has destoyed over a dozen American drones since the start of the war, according to ABC News. And Iran continues to target U.S. allies in the Gulf region.
Iran successfully hit a desalination plant, an oil refinery, and an airport in Kuwait this week, according to the New York Times. President Trump posted video of the destruction of an Iranian bridge on Thursday and threatened to destroy power plants as well as more civilian infrastructure.
Friday morning Trump made his goals even more explicit, saying he wanted to “take the oil, & make a fortune.” It’s not exactly the message of someone who plans to wind down the war. And if this continues, the U.S. can probably expect to see more downed fighter jets.
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