It was essential to arrive before the tribes who were seeking the reward for the missing pilot. The time window was closing, and the search teams had to act. The extraction of the co-pilot of the F-15E aircraft was highly dramatic. The CIA initiated a diversionary operation to suggest that the pilot was located in an entirely different place, and the Iranians were completely deceived.

It sounds simple when it is said that the pilot ejected. In reality, it is an operation that easily results in spinal injuries.

Video footage from the crash site suggests that the pilot had concealed himself in a dry, mountainous area deep inside southern Iran after pulling the yellow side handle on his ejection seat.
The ejection seat’s launch system, which uses a solid CKU-5 rocket propellant to blast through the aircraft’s cockpit at a speed of 200 metres per second squared, is among the most sophisticated ever produced, but entails a high risk of spinal fractures and other injuries.

When the task force was deployed, it had to employ overwhelming firepower to neutralise the individuals on the ground.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the injured colonel emerged from hiding at the final moments and executed a “bold move to meet his rescue team” consisting of commandos from Navy SEAL Team 6.
He climbed a 2,134-metre mountain ridge while American forces dropped bombs and opened fire on Iranian convoys that were approaching.
The rescue operation itself involved hundreds of special forces personnel flown in by specialised MC-130J troop transport aircraft to an improvised runway, while MQ-9 Reaper drones and fast jets provided air support and attacked all men of military age deemed a threat within a radius of three kilometres.

Two aircraft became stuck on the improvised runway and had to be abandoned. They were destroyed to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. Each costs 100 million dollars. Two new aircraft had to be deployed to retrieve the pilot and the special forces.

The pilot is now in hospital in Kuwait.

Donald Trump followed the search operation hour by hour from the White House.