{"id":224222,"date":"2026-09-15T00:53:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/air-force-officer-recalls-free-falling-after-jet-was-shot-down-over-iran-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:53:40","slug":"air-force-officer-recalls-free-falling-after-jet-was-shot-down-over-iran-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/air-force-officer-recalls-free-falling-after-jet-was-shot-down-over-iran-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force officer recalls \u2018free-falling\u2019 after jet was shot down over Iran – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In an interview with CBS\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired Sunday, one of the two U.S. Air Force officers whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran in April detailed his harrowing ordeal, including plummeting to the ground with a damaged parachute.
The Defense Department has not identified the Air Force colonel by name. \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Norah O\u2019Donnell said the show agreed to refer to the weapons systems officer by his mission call sign, \u201cBravo,\u201d because of security threats from the Iranian regime.
In the interview<\/a>, the lead segment on the 59th season premiere of the CBS newsmagazine, Bravo said he felt like he had been \u201chit by a freight train\u201d when a shoulder-fired missile rammed into his F-15E two-seat fighter jet on April 2. The other Air Force officer hit the eject button.
\u201cI will be thankful to my dying day for my pilot and crewmate, Alpha, for saving our lives and ejecting us,\u201d Bravo told O\u2019Donnell.
Bravo said he started \u201cfree-falling\u201d toward a rugged mountainous area. He looked up and saw that his parachute had been damaged in the missile attack \u2014 a realization he called \u201cthe most terrifying thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d Military professionals estimate he hit the Iranian desert somewhere between 70 and 100 mph, he said, adding that his survival was a \u201cmodern-day miracle.\u201d
\u201c60 Minutes\u201d reported that the fall broke Bravo\u2019s back, arm and shoulder, yet he managed to hike and climb a 7,000-foot ridgeline to evade capture. He was stranded behind enemy lines for two days without food or water before two elite Air Force pararescue operators got him out of harm\u2019s way<\/a>.
\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d Bravo said he told his rescuers. \u201c60 Minutes\u201d characterized the search-and-rescue operation as one of the most complex and risky in U.S. military history. (Sunday\u2019s segment did not feature an interview with Alpha, who landed 5 miles away from Bravo after they ejected from the F-15E<\/a>.)
\u201c60 Minutes\u201d returned to the airwaves Sunday after a summer of turmoil at America\u2019s leading broadcast newsmagazine.
CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss undertook a sweeping shake-up at the show in late May. She tapped technology journalist and documentarian Nick Bilton as the program\u2019s new executive producer<\/a>, cut ties with a group of senior leaders and let go of two correspondents, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi.
Scott Pelley, a veteran correspondent, excoriated Bilton<\/a> at a June 1 staff meeting, questioning his qualifications for his role and objecting to the ousters of Vega and Alfonsi. Pelley was fired the next day<\/a>. Alfonsi had previously clashed with Weiss<\/a> over a segment about the Trump administration\u2019s deportation of Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador.
Weiss and Bilton have since hired new on-air talent<\/a>, including Ross Douthat, a former opinion columnist at The New York Times who is now a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent, and Sebastian Junger, a reporter and author who became a contributor to the series. Bilton announced in late July that O\u2019Donnell had been elevated to full-time correspondent.
Sunday\u2019s season premiere offered a glimpse of the revamped program, with slight adjustments to its on-air graphics. The two other segments that aired Sunday were an investigation into \u201cbrokers\u201d paid to seek pardons from the Trump administration and an inside look at the Los Angeles Rams football franchise.
In the episode\u2019s final minute, Douthat said \u201c60 Minutes\u201d was planning stories about the artificial intelligence boom.
\u201cWe may have a narrow window \u2014 this year, not the next 10 \u2014 to make artificial intelligence safe for humanity. That clock is ticking, and so is ours,\u201d Douthat said, accompanied by the show\u2019s signature \u201ctick-tick-tick\u201d sound effect. \u201cFor almost 60 years, it has meant the same thing: journalism you can trust. Where we\u2019re headed, we\u2019re going to need it.\u201d
Daniel Arkin is a senior reporter at NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeIn an interview with CBS\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired Sunday, one of the two U.S. Air Force officers whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran in April detailed his harrowing ordeal, including plummeting to the ground with a damaged parachute.The Defense Department has not identified the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}