Blindfolded, Made To Kneel: What Happened Last Time Iran Held US Personnel

Iran shot down a US F-15E fighter jet, marking the first confirmed loss of an American aircraft inside Iranian territory since the war began.

04 Apr 2026, 12:02 · NDTV

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A US F-15E was shot down over Iran, and one of the crew members remains missing
Iran is offering rewards to civilians for capturing the missing US airman
In 2016, Iran captured 10 US sailors and made them kneel, apologise on camera

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For 35 days, no American aircraft had been lost inside Iran. That changed on Saturday. An F-15E was shot down, one crew member was rescued, and now a race is on between the US and Iran to find the one who wasn't.

On Saturday, Iran shot down a US F-15E fighter jet, marking the first confirmed loss of an American aircraft inside Iranian territory since the war began on February 28.

The F-15E is operated by a two-member crew, comprising a pilot and a weapons systems officer in the rear seat. US forces located and rescued one of the two crew members. The other remains missing.

Tehran Offers Rewards, Washington Races To Find Its Crew Member

Within hours of the downing, local Iranian media broadcast a public announcement: "Dear and honourable people, if you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police and military forces, you will receive a valuable reward and bonus."

The announcement set off what is effectively a race between Washington and Tehran to reach the missing crew member first.

Iran Has Done This Before

If Iran captures the missing airman, it would not be the first time Tehran has held American personnel.

Almost 5 decades ago, on 4 November 1979, following the arrival of Iran's deposed Shah in New York for cancer treatment, a group of pro-Ayatollah students broke into the American embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, including diplomats, military attaches and US Marine embassy guards. Fifty-two of them were held for 444 days, finally freed on 20 January 1981, just hours after President Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address.

Almost 40 years later, on 12 January 2016, two US Navy riverine command boats travelling from Kuwait to Bahrain strayed into Iranian territorial waters near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.

The sailors, nine men and one woman, were taken at gunpoint and blindfolded by armed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members after their boats came within roughly one nautical mile of Farsi Island, where Iran maintains a major military installation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif within five minutes of the detention, beginning a series of calls between the two. The sailors were released unharmed after 15 hours.

The Iranian forces ordered the sailors to strip off their body armour, kneel, and put their hands behind their heads, photographing and filming them throughout. The crew was then taken to Farsi Island, where they were questioned and held overnight before being let go the following day.

To secure their release, the sailors complied with Iranian demands to eat and appear happy on camera, and one of the captains read out an apology that had been written for him by the Iranians. What the sailors did not know was that the US government had already secured their unconditional release through back-channel negotiations before any of this took place.

Later, the US Navy investigation found that the crew had failed to realise where they were, despite having the mapping technology available to them.

"As disappointing as the circumstances surrounding the incident on 12 January 2016 were, I find the failures that were documented in this investigation to be a symptom of a poorly led and unprepared unit thrust into a confusing situation that they were unable to comprehend and react to, until it was too late," said Vice Admiral Kevin M Donegan, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command.

British Personnel Held Too

The United States is not the only country whose military personnel have ended up in Iranian custody.

In March 2007, Iranian naval forces seized 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint while they were on a routine inspection of merchant ships in the Persian Gulf. Britain maintained that its personnel were in Iraqi waters at the time, while Iran said they had entered Iranian territory illegally.

It was not an isolated incident. In 2004, eight British servicemen were held for three days after their boats drifted into Iranian waters. They were blindfolded, interrogated and made to read apologies on Iranian television before being released.

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