How a wounded Air Force officer stayed safe in Iran after plane was shot down

When an American fighter jet was shot down over Iran this past April 2, not one, but two U.S. Air Force officers were left stranded, alone in a rugged mountain range, being pursued by Iranian forces. To prevent their capture — five weeks into a costly and unpopular war that has taken the lives of 18 U.S. service members — the U.S. military launched one of the largest search and rescue operations in its history.

Tonight, we begin our 59th season with how the mission unfolded. We'll show you newly declassified footage and you'll meet the colonel who lived through it all to tell us the story.

When the U.S. went to war with Iran this past February, it was by sea but mostly from the air.

ADM. BRAD COOPER: Broadly, we had flown about 13,000 missions up to this point. So we had air superiority, but clearly we weren't flying over Kansas.

Adm. Brad Cooper is the American commander in charge of the war. We asked him what brought the fighter jet to a mountainous area south of the city of Isfahan, close to where Iran had been keeping much of its highly enriched nuclear material.

ADM. BRAD COOPER: Their mission that evening was to conduct a strike on industrial facilities related to both the drone and the missile program, not related to the Isfahan nuclear facility.

The plane's mission call sign was DUDE 44. It was an F-15E, a type of two-seat fighter that's been a workhorse of U.S. air combat operations for decades. The $30 million jet was brought down by a shoulder-fired missile that can cost around $100,000.

Evidence of the wreckage was shared online by Iranian media. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was woken up Thursday night with the news.

NORAH O'DONNELL: When you heard that an American fighter jet was down behind enemy lines in Iran, what went through your mind?

SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Probably, "You know, you always knew that was possible." And so immediately it's to the next steps, "Are they OK? Does Iran know that?" And, you know, whether they're alive or not, we're gonna go get 'em.

BRAVO: That day was just another day in the war for us, until the moment where we got hit by an Iranian weapon.

This is Bravo, one of the two officers shot down over Iran. Neither has spoken publicly until now.

BRAVO: I think the best way I've been able to describe that moment was getting hit by a freight train.

We've agreed to call the weapon systems officer by his mission call sign, Bravo, due to security threats from Iran.