The second American aircraft shot down on Friday was taking part in a rescue mission, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed at a news conference Monday. Caine said the A-10 Warthog was part of a "sandy" mission, in which an attack aircraft flies between a rescue team and hostile forces, the New York Times reports. The low-flying aircraft was hit several times as it supported the effort to recover the pilot of an F-15E fighter jet shot down hours earlier, Caine said. He said the A-10 was "not landable." Despite the damage, the A-10's pilot managed to get the aircraft out of Iranian airspace before ejecting over friendly territory, Caine said.
Caine credited an "interagency partner" with locating the other downed officer, who was rescued almost two days later, and suggested a small drone was used to track the survivor's hiding place. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, brought to the lectern in an acknowledgment of the agency's role, said a mix of "human assets" and "exquisite technologies" was used to confirm the aviator was alive, alone, and in position for rescue, the Times reports.
Ratcliffe also said the agency ran a deception effort to keep Iranian forces from finding the officer. He remained "invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA," Ratcliffe said. He said the effort to find the airman was "comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert." At the news conference, President Trump said the F-15E was downed by a "hand-held shoulder missile—heat-seeking missile," the AP reports. "They shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine," he said. Trump also threatened to jail the journalist who first reported on the rescue mission.
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