F-15E pilot downed over Iran had been shot down a month prior
F-15E weapon systems officer suffered a parachute “malfunction” when he punched out
The pilot of the F-15E Strike Eagle shot down April 3 over Iran was also the pilot of one of the three F-15Es shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident less than five weeks previously, making him “almost certainly” the first Air Force fixed-wing pilot to be shot down twice in the same conflict since the Vietnam war, according to current and former Air Force officials.
The other airman shot down in the April 3 incident, the F-15E’s weapon systems officer, suffered injuries after his parachute failed to properly open when the pair ejected following an Iranian missile strike, according to a former senior Air Force official who was briefed on the episode.