Claim: A video shows a US pilot of a downed fighter aircraft being captured by Iran in early April 2026 amid the recent Israel-US war with Iran.
Fact: The video predates the downing of the aircraft, with factcheckers and social media posts linking it to a military exercise in Libya in March 2026.
Multiple users posted a video purportedly showing a US pilot being captured by Iran in April 2026. One such post from 5 April states: “#Iranian website publishes a video of the moment the missing American pilot was captured.”
The US carried out a rescue operation for two airmen after their fighter aircraft was shot down by Iran early in April 2026, amid the recent Israel-US war with Iran.
The two aircrew members of the US forces ejected themselves after Iran shot down their F-15E Strike Eagle. The pilot was rescued quickly, while the second airman, who is a weapons system officer, was separated and hid in a mountain crevice deep inside Iran.
This set off a high-stakes search operation by the US special forces, who conducted a raid into Iran and rescued the weapons officer nearly two days later.
This clip went viral before the temporary ceasefire was announced between Iran and the US on 7 April, ahead of the peace talks that took place in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 11 April.
Fact or Fiction?
Both pilots of the downed US fighter aircraft were rescued by the US, ruling out the possibility of this footage being linked to this incident in any way. This raised suspicion that the footage was falsely linked to the incident.
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found that it predates the downing of F-15E Strike Eagle in April 2026.
A Facebook user posted a version of the same video on 3 March 2026, indicating it was unrelated to the US aircraft being shot down in early April 2026. The caption [translated from Arabic into English via Google Translate] suggested that the footage showed an injured soldier from the “80th Thunderbolt Brigade” who jumped and was helped by his friends to make a landing on the ground.
At 0:18, the above clip also captures the same scenes from a different angle that does not appear in the video being fact-checked.
Further searches yielded fact checks by various platforms that debunked the same footage when it circulated online in early April 2026.
Misbar, a fact-checking platform, debunked the same clip in its article titled “Does the Video Show Iranian Villagers Capturing a U.S. Pilot After His Jet Was Downed in Iran?” on 5 April. The article found that the video was shared in early March 2026 and published a screenshot of the X handle of “fawasel media”, a Libyan media platform, which shared this video on 2 March 2026.
Soch Fact Check reviewed this clip (archive) in question, which is the same as the one being fact-checked, confirming that it is unrelated to the downing of the US aircraft. The caption further stated that the clip showed “A member of the Thunderbolt Forces in Benghazi performs a parachute jump despite having a broken leg, and his colleagues welcome him upon landing.”
Left: The video circulating in early April 2026. Right: The matching video posted by Fawasel Media’s X account on 2 March 2026.
AFP Arabic also fact-checked the same clip in an article (archive) titled [translated from Arabic into English via Google], “This video shows military exercises in Libya and not for the families of an American pilot in Iran” on 7 April 2026.
AFP additionally found a video posted on 1 March by a Facebook user showing the same incident from another angle. After reaching out to this user, he confirmed to the publication that the clip showed him and “that the video was filmed in the city of Benghazi on March 1, 2026, during the basic skydiving course, batch of 80.” He further added that he had a broken leg injury, and his colleagues assisted him in landing.
AFP (Arabic) is also a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network, along with Soch Fact Check.
Video found by AFP posted on Facebook on 1 March.
Soch Fact Check thus rates the claim as false, as the clip is old, with other fact-checkers and posts sharing the original video linking it to military exercises in Libya
Virality
The clip was shared on X here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook here, here, here and here.
On Instagram here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The video does not show a US pilot purportedly getting captured by Iran after his aircraft was shot down in April 2026. The clip is unrelated, is from early March 2026, and likely shows a military exercise in Libya.
Background image in cover photo: Wikipedia
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