Airman shot down in Iran shares harrowing rescue story

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN

(CNN) — The American airman rescued from Iran after his aircraft was shot down in April shared for the first time details about the risky recovery operation during a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday.

“Bravo,” the airman’s mission call sign used during the broadcast to shield his identity, said his parachute was damaged after the plane was hit, and that during free fall, he did everything he could to “unfurl or pull pieces of the parachute loose.”

“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. The fall broke his back, an arm and a shoulder, and left him with a sprained ankle and bloody scrapes to his head and face, he said.

Once he ejected from the F-15, the weapon systems officer managed to avoid detection by encroaching Iran forces, hiking up a 7,000-foot ridge with his injuries while equipped with little more than a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon, according to previous accounts by US officials and “Bravo’s” account on Sunday. While the aircraft’s pilot was rescued shortly after the crash, “Bravo” was rescued 50 hours later.

Both crew members have not been publicly identified by the Pentagon out of concern for their safety and as a safeguard against disclosing sensitive information.

“As soon as I found a spot that I felt provided some concealment, I started working toward communication,” “Bravo” told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell. “When I got to the moment where I could review and think about all that I’d gone through, I sent ‘God is good,’” he added, describing the first message he sent.

CNN reported Saturday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and political appointees in his department pushed for the two crew members to participate in the exclusively and highly publicized interview, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Both airmen initially expressed reservations about doing so, while military officials were also wary of revealing classified details of the rescue effort, according to three of the sources. The pilot declined to take part in the interview. CNN also reported that political appointees within Hegseth’s office insisted the interview go forward despite reservations voiced by the military’s chain of command.

“This entire story is a complete lie,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said when asked about CNN’s reporting on plans for the segment.

“The decision to participate in the interview was each pilot’s alone — because it is their story,” he added. “As CNN notes, one pilot decided to participate and one did not. Additionally, the Department took great care to ensure operational security, sources, and methods were protected.”

Evading capture

“Bravo” told CBS he hid alone in a mountain crevice for hours, while elite American service members, accompanied by US aircraft dropping bombs to clear the area, raced to locate the officer.

The rescue involved hundreds of American military and intelligence personnel, including special operations forces such as Army Delta Force and Navy SEAL Team Six. CIA operatives mounted a deception campaign beforehand to throw off Iran, whose leaders who had offered a bounty for the airman’s capture.

The CBS broadcast featured declassified video from the Pentagon that showed elite Air Force pararescue operators making their way toward “Bravo” to rescue him. He declined to share what the service members said to him when they finally arrived.

The rescue featured some twists. The US military blew up two damaged MC-130J special operations transport aircraft that had been waiting to take the commandos and the rescued airman out of the country. But they had become damaged at some point during the operation and all 90-plus special operators were briefly stranded. After they were eventually rescued, the US opted to destroy the broken aircraft to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands and then send in new planes.

“Bravo” said the entire ordeal will stay with him. The moment he saw his rescuers arriving on the ridge line where he was hiding, he said, “was one of the greatest moments of my life, and I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than ‘thank you’ for all that they did.”

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CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Brian Stelter and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.