On the night of April 2–3, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a video showing a fighter jet struck by an anti-aircraft missile. Iran's claim that it shot down an F‑35 Lightning II is based on footage showing an aircraft being hit and continuing to fly, but the poor video quality makes it difficult to verify the exact type.
Immediately after a video showing the crash appeared online, the U.S. military command in the Middle East (CENTCOM) issued a denial of the shootdown, stating that all jets were safe. However, photos of the crash site of the unidentified aircraft surfaced by morning.
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One of the photos from the crash site shows part of the vertical tail fin with a fragment of a distinctive emblem. An F-35A Lightning II with the same emblem was immediately identified online. It belonged to the 48th Fighter Wing, which is based in Europe at an airbase in the United Kingdom.
In addition to the emblem on the tail, another crucial detail was visible: a white-red-white stripe. No F‑35 in this wing has a stripe like this.
Instead, the wing operates F‑15E Strike Eagle aircraft, which are also part of the 48th Fighter Wing's inventory.
However, it should be noted that the authenticity of the published photos has not yet been confirmed. An important caveat is that the images may show debris from an F‑15 that was shot down in an earlier incident. For instance, these could be debris from one of the F-15E Strike Eagles shot down in a friendly fire incident in early March, when a Kuwaiti F/A-18 Hornet shot down three of them at once.
Should reports of an additional F‑15 being shot down be verified, it would represent the fourth loss of this fighter type in Operation Epic Fury. This would create a situation where CENTCOM is denying that one of its fighter jets was shot down, while the Iranians are falsely claiming it was a more valuable target—the F‑35.
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