A U.S. military F-35 fighter jet was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday.
The fighter jet pilot made an emergency landing after reportedly being shot by Iran while flying in the Middle East.
The Hill provided details on the emergency landing:
A U.S. F-35 fighter jet made an emergency landing at a regional U.S. airbase in the Middle East after flying a combat mission over Iran, the U.S. military said Thursday.
CNN reported the plane, which cost up to $100 million, was believed to have been hit by Iran, citing two unnamed sources.
The plane landed “safely,” the pilot is in “stable” condition and the incident is under investigation, U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command (Centcom), told The Hill in a statement.
If CNN’s reporting is true, the development would be the first known time that Iran struck a U.S. fighter plane since the war broke out on Feb. 28.
Both Israel and the U.S. militaries possess F-35s, a fifth-generation fighter jet that is produced by Lockheed Martin.
The U.S. and Israeli forces have continued striking targets inside Iran, while Tehran has been retaliating with fire against U.S. assets in Gulf states, which have worked to intercept Iranian drones and missiles.
Here’s a reported video of the attack (the U.S. Military has yet to confirm the legitimacy of the video):
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has release a statement, accompanied by video footage, which claims to show the targeting of an American F-35A/B Lightning ll with a surface-to-air missile in the skies over Iran. This claim by the IRGC follows reports that a F-35… pic.twitter.com/5omxjVESR3
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 19, 2026
The South China Morning Post reported that since the war in Iran began, 16 U.S. aircraft have been destroyed:
At least 16 US military aircraft have been destroyed since the start of the war with Iran, including 10 Reaper strike drones hit by enemy fire, with a half-dozen other planes badly damaged in attacks or accidents.
The most serious losses were because of accidents: three US F-15s downed by friendly fire in Kuwait, and a KC-135 tanker destroyed during a refuelling operation. All six crew members on the tanker were killed in the accident.
Five other KC-135s were reportedly damaged by an Iranian missile strike while parked at an airfield in Saudi Arabia.
So far only the uncrewed Reapers have been brought down by Iranian defences, with at least nine being destroyed in the air, according to a person familiar with the matter.
One was hit at an airfield in Jordan by a ballistic missile, people familiar with the matter said.
The other two Reapers were lost to accidents. The drones are meant to be “attritable” – flown in higher-risk areas because they do not carry pilots and are much cheaper to replace than a crewed plane.
