US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East, said earlier that two Apache crew members “were rescued by American forces after their helicopter went down near the coast of Oman.”
“The Soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition,” CENTCOM said in a post on X, while the command’s spokesperson said a naval surface drone helped rescue the downed helicopter’s crew.
The United States has lost a number of aircraft during the war against Iran, which began with a US-Israeli attack on February 28.
The US F-15 shot down in April was hit by a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile, with its two-person crew ejecting and landing in different areas inside Iran.
They were rescued in a major, high-risk US operation, during which an A-10 ground attack aircraft was damaged by Iranian fire to the extent that its pilot determined that the aircraft could not land and ultimately ejected after flying back to friendly territory.
In March, a US KC‑135 aerial refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, killing all six crew members. The US military said the incident was not caused by hostile fire.
And earlier in the war, Kuwaiti forces mistakenly downed three American F-15E fighters, but all six crew members were able to eject.
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