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The Situation Room

U.S. Fighter Jet Shot Down in Iran. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00]

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[11:30:11]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And we are continuing to follow major breaking news out of Iran.

U.S. sources say an American fighter jet has been shot down.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And video posted to social media appearing to show search-and-rescue efforts to try to find the aircraft's crew. Photos released by the Iranian state media showed debris.

Based on these photos, CNN military analysts believe the downed plane was an American Air Force F-15 fighter jet.

Want to go straight to CNN's national security reporter, Haley Britzky, who's here with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

You're doing a lot of reporting, Haley, on this. We're grateful to you. What else are you learning?

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, so we just learned that President Trump has been briefed on the matter. So that's the first kind of confirmation we have had of their awareness.

The Pentagon and the White House have not commented publicly yet on the status of these -- of the crew or on the situation. But, certainly, it raises the question about the comments we have heard from the president and from the defense secretary over the last several days and a couple of weeks, kind of pointing out that the U.S. can sort of fly with impunity over Iran, that the U.S. has devastated their air defenses, that Iran has no air defenses.

Obviously, this raises questions about that and the reality on the ground that these U.S. forces are facing.

BROWN: Yes, because, even just a couple of weeks ago, DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth said the air defenses have been flattened.

BRITZKY: That's right.

And so we have seen, we saw reporting last night as well showing that Iran had more missile launchers still left in its arsenal, certainly more drones left in its arsenal. So it does raise questions about how long this can go.

We saw the president earlier this week sort of lay out this two-to- three-week timeline. A source told us yesterday that you would have to be out of your mind to think that this could be totally wrapped up in two weeks if you are wanting to get rid of all of those missile launchers and drones and things and take them off of the playing board.

So we're still waiting to see exactly what is happening with this crew. This would be a substantial escalation in this. This would be the first time that a fighter has been shot down over Iran. We reported last month that an F-35 was hit by Iran, but it safely landed at a U.S. base in the region.

So this would be a significant escalation in the conflict.

BLITZER: And, clearly, they still have a lot of military capability. They're launching a lot of rockets and missiles towards U.S. bases, U.S. facilities, including hotels, if you will, in some of the Gulf states, whether in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or Qatar or United Arab Emirates.

And even in Israel, which is further away, as Jim Sciutto has been reporting, at least 10 or 15 times in the course of the last few hours sirens were going off in Tel Aviv, in Central Israel, and other parts of Israel with rockets and missiles coming in from Iran. So they still have capability.

BRITZKY: They absolutely do, yes.

BROWN: And they also hit that desalination plant, which is a big deal for the region because they rely on those plants for clean water to drink.

And when you talk about the capabilities that Iran still has, those one-way track -- one-way attack drones, those missiles, you also have to think about those search-and-rescue operators who are there.

And, at some points, they have to hover, I imagine, in order to see if they can locate the pilots.

BRITZKY: Absolutely.

BROWN: It's a very dangerous mission they're on.

BRITZKY: It is.

I mean, it's a risk to find them and certainly something that I know these crews are willing and eager to do to find the remaining crew members and bring them home. But it is a risk.

And it just reminds us that these forces, while the administration may be saying this is practically won, they still are facing a very real risk on the ground and in the region, not just those in this search- and-rescue operation, but the thousands, tens of thousands of forces who are deployed around the region at U.S. Army bases and on these U.S. Naval ships in this area.

BROWN: Yes, and just to remind our viewers how big Iran is, more than twice the size of Texas. I know you're from Texas.

BRITZKY: I am.

BROWN: It's a large territory. We don't know exactly where this plane went down, this fighter jet went down, but it's certainly dangerous all around for those ejected pilots or pilot and the crews that are looking for them right now.

All right, Haley Britzky, thank you so much.

We will be right back with much more breaking news coverage after this break.

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BLITZER: More now on our breaking story this morning, huge story, after three U.S. sources say a U.S. fighter jet, an F-15, has been shot down over Iran.

BROWN: Let's go live now to CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene.

Alayna, I want to play this moment from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a press conference a couple of weeks ago talking about the military successes the U.S. has been claiming over Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Iran's air defenses flattened, Iran's defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed.

We have hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly. Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all, ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90 percent since the start of the conflict, same with one-way attack UAVs, think kamikaze drones, down 90 percent.

Now, the Iranians will still shoot, we know that, but they would shoot a lot more if they could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And, Alayna, we're learning that, as we're hearing those claims in the last couple of weeks, not just from Hegseth, but also from President Trump himself, about taking down Iranian air defenses, the downing now of this F-15 fighter jet in Iran, and we have learned the president has been briefed, right?

[11:40:00] ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right.

President Trump has been briefed. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told me in response to our reporting about this fighter jet being downed over Iran.

Look, to that clip you just played of Hegseth, this has been a chief criticism we have been hearing from lawmakers, from allies of this White House, that they have gone almost too far sometimes in describing the military successes of this.

Now, I know from my conversations with sources within the intelligence community, they say, yes, that Iran's missile capabilities, their military capabilities have been severely degraded, but I think this idea that they have been completely destroyed or wiped out, the rhetoric that you often hear from the president, to say that, is clearly not the case.

And they're showing that with this today. And there's so many questions, of course, with this reporting now and three U.S. officials confirming, that where does this go from here? Because we have heard now the president. He reiterated this during his national address on Wednesday night that he thinks this war is nearing its completion, that he believes they could -- he set this new arbitrary deadline of another potentially two to three weeks until we should expect the war to wind down.

But you can't really square what we saw today with many of the comments we have been hearing from the White House and the military just about how much they have been able to obliterate Iran's military capabilities.

And one other thing I just want to say in some of this, I think we are still waiting to hear from the White House, as well as from the U.S. military, any sort of official statement on this. Again, the only thing I have heard officially from this White House has been from Leavitt saying that the president has been briefed.

I can also tell you I know that he's been in the Oval and out of the Oval, I'm told, throughout the day. No word yet on whether he's been taken to the Situation Room to monitor this. But there are many details that are still not known from my conversations with some of the U.S. officials for the story.

They say that the fate of the crew on this plane is not yet known either, search-and-rescue is under way. And so we still have a lot more we need to learn about this. But, of course, this is definitely a huge hit for the United States in these efforts.

BLITZER: Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you very, very much.

And we're, of course, going to stay on top of this major breaking story. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:46:39]

BLITZER: We're continuing our breaking news coverage on the war with Iran.

U.S. sources confirming to CNN that an American fighter jet, an F-15, has been shot down over Iran. Iran state media has been showing this video for hours now, claiming it is a downed U.S. Air Force fighter jet. Three U.S. sources are now confirming to CNN that those -- that crashed U.S. fighter jet occurred in Iran.

BROWN: And this as a new image published by Iranian state media, and it appears to show a damaged fighter jet ejection seat on the ground, as you see right here.

CNN analysis of this image indicates this seat is consistent with the model used in an F-15E fighter jet. The seat, which separates from the air crew during the ejection process, appears to have sustained damage, with a portion of its back structure missing. Right now, there is no word on the condition of the aircraft's crew and a search-and- rescue mission is under way.

Joining us now is retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton and Sabrina Singh, a CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary in the Biden administration.

Colonel, to you first.

Typically, there would be two members, two crew members. We don't have that confirmed. We saw that one seat. But, if there were two crew members, I mean, they could have ejected very different places in Iran, right? I mean, there could theoretically be not just one search- and-rescue mission located in one spot.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Right. That's right, Pamela.

And one of the things to keep in mind is that, once you eject from an aircraft -- remember, the aircraft is moving, and now you're moving, because you're -- you're parachuting down to the ground. Prevailing winds can move the two different crew members in totally different directions.

So, it's possible that you have a situation where there is one search- and-rescue effort that basically rescues one pilot, and then the other crew member would be the subject of another rescue mission. So, this is an extensive rescue operation that's going on right now because they need to not only find both of the crew members, but they also need to bring them back, and hopefully safely bring them back.

BROWN: Sabrina, you're a former deputy press secretary at the Pentagon. Bring us into the bunker...

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BROWN: ... of what would be going on right now with top national security officials.

SINGH: Immediately, when something like this happens, U.S. Central Command is going to take the lead in terms of updating the secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on what exactly happened.

So, reporting is going to come up through U.S. Central Command to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary's office. And what likely happens when -- and, unfortunately, I have been a part of some of these calls -- is, there are sync calls that will happen in the Pentagon.

And the secretary is then able to use those calls to get information to find out what happened, likely to get the names of the two pilots, what squadron they were a part of, and to find out more on the search- and-rescue operations.

That information is then relayed up to the president through -- likely in the Situation Room. It could be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the secretary together updating the president on what we know at this moment. But it's going to take a lot of time.

And for the public, obviously, the public wants to know the names of these pilots or potentially what their situation is, if they're OK. That's going to take a lot of time, and we're probably not going to have confirmation of their names for I would assume a day or two, because this information is so sensitive and their lives are at risk right now.

[11:50:00]

BLITZER: And anything that's reported on CNN or other U.S. networks...

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: ... presumably is being monitored by the Iranians. And you don't want to give the Iranians any advance information about the search-and-rescue operation, because they could try to dismantle it at the same time.

SINGH: That's right.

BLITZER: So, this information is so, so sensitive.

Give us a little flavor of how the administration, the Pentagon specifically, tries to safeguard these kinds of details.

SINGH: It's interesting, because it's always something that we really try and protect.

But, of course, there's open-source reporting. I mean, some of the imagery that you're seeing on your screens first were reported just on social media. So, the Pentagon is really going to clamp down on information. I think most important here, given that you have two people that are missing, are their families. And so they're going to want to safeguard those names. The squadron is

likely aware, because, of course, they're a team. They know who is up in the air at what time. And that squadron will also go on lockdown and not release those names until the next of kin notifications happen, if they need to happen. And, right now, we don't know.

Right now, it's still search-and-rescue. Let's hope it is -- remains that for the foreseeable future.

BLITZER: Colonel, we have seen the image of that damaged ejection seat on the ground. The Iranian news media published that picture. There it is right there.

It's a pretty violent experience being ejected from a plane like that, a fighter jet, and then landing on the ground.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely.

And one of the things to keep in mind is that the idea when they eject is basically to allow them to separate from the ejection seat once they're airborne. Sometimes, that doesn't happen. So, in this particular case, there is a possibility that they may have actually been following the ejection seat all the way down to the ground or that it separated in air and that the ejection seat is in one place and the pilot or the other crew member were somewhere else.

But the forces are extremely violent. If you can imagine, when you talk about g-forces when you talk about astronauts, for example, and going up into space, but g-forces are a huge factor also for fighter pilots. And, in fact, if you can't withstand, physically can't withstand g-forces to a certain extent, you cannot make the qualification to be a fighter pilot.

So, these people are exceptionally well-trained. They're physically able to do a lot of these things. And they are trained specifically for this kind of an event, even though they hope it never happens to them. They are trained very extensively as part of their pilot training.

They start out with undergraduate pilot training, or UPT, and then they go to more advanced training.

BLITZER: And if a pilot is ejected from a fast-moving fighter jet, that pilot immediately has a parachute to have a soft landing.

LEIGHTON: That's correct, yes, as soft as possible.

Now, sometimes, supposedly soft landings are pretty hard. So the pilot has to be -- many of them are actually jump qualified. They will have had parachute training before they even get their commissions, especially at the Air Force Academy. They do that quite a bit.

And so they will go in and have that training, and they will be familiar with the kinds of procedures that you need -- that you would get in, say, Army airborne training. So that's the kind of thing that is very important. It really helps them survive an event like this. But the forces, as you mentioned, Wolf, are really hard on the body, and that can be a very, very difficult thing. And, oftentimes, there are a lot of broken bones in situations like this.

(CROSSTALK)

LEIGHTON: And you have to be really careful with that.

BROWN: Yes.

And we just learned, we want to note, from two sources that U.S. forces were in fact looking for two pilots, and we did confirm that there are two crew members that they were looking for. We don't know what the status is of the search-and-rescue, but we have learned, according to an anchor for an Iranian news agency, that they're putting out a reward for -- the Iranian side, for what they're calling the enemy pilots.

Just tell us how dangerous and risky all of this is for the pilots and for the search-and-rescue teams.

LEIGHTON: It's exceptionally dangerous.

And our search-and-rescue capabilities have really evolved quite a bit, Pamela, from the Vietnam War, and through the Bosnian conflict, as well as into the wars in the desert in the Middle East. And, as we look at how things have changed, you see how each of the different adversaries have reacted to downed pilots.

The Vietnamese were notorious for capturing American pilots and imprisoning them. In fact, the local population was exceptionally hostile to American pilots. And they would -- of course, we ended up with a lot of POWs as a result of those situations.

Now the effort is made to try to avoid capture as much as possible, although air crew members are trained on how to behave during an interrogation or during the capturing of -- if they were to be captured. That would -- they know how to behave during those situations.

But they also want to follow the Geneva Convention and make sure that they aren't captured, because one of the credos of the American military force is that you avoid capture as much as possible, but, if you are captured, then you also resist as much as possible and give as little information as possible.

[11:55:11]

BLITZER: Colonel Leighton, thank you very much. Sabrina Singh, thank you as well. Lots of breaking news happening this hour.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM this morning.

Also, this note. To all of our viewers out there, have a very happy Easter. BROWN: And also just noting, with this breaking news, thank you to

all of our U.S. service members putting themselves in harm's way.

BLITZER: Good point.

BROWN: We will see you back here Monday morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern.

"INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Manu Raju starts after a short break.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Manu Raju, in for Dana Bash.

And we begin with major breaking news on the war in Iran. Three sources tell CNN a U.S. fighter jet has been shot down over Iran and a search-and-rescue mission is under way for two pilots. This video, video verified by CNN, appears to show planes conducting that search- and-rescue operation in Iran.