Around dawn on Friday, a McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle from the US Air Force’s 494th Fighter Squadron was shot down over south-western Iran. Although the Iranians initially talked about a ‘massive explosion’, it seems that anti-aircraft fire tore off the F-15E’s tail fin, causing it to crash; but the two crew members seem to have ejected before then.

The capture of a pilot by an enemy regime would rekindle some of the American public’s worst, most horrifying atavistic memories

The capture of a pilot by an enemy regime would rekindle some of the American public’s worst, most horrifying atavistic memories

The pilot has already been rescued by US Special Forces, but the fate of the weapons systems officer (WSO, or ‘wizzo’), who sits behind the pilot and controls the air-to-ground avionics, is unknown. At the same time, an Iranian announcer on the regional state television channel in the mountainous, sparsely populated Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, made a chilling offer:

‘If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize.’

An Iranian businessman has also offered £45,000 to anyone who captures the aircrew alive. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the chairman of the Islamic Consultative Assembly – Iran’s unicameral legislature – took a different tack. On social media, he poked fun at the Americans.

‘After defeating Iran........

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