Shooting down planes is possible…what matters is what happens after that

American writer and lawyer Harrison Cass believes that the downing of two F-15E Strike Eagle and A-10 Warthog aircraft last week during Operation Epic Fury raised a realization about one of the most dangerous scenarios in the air war.

Cass, a writer and lawyer specializing in national security, technology, and political culture who holds a juris doctorate from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in global and corporate studies from New York University, said that while shooting down a plane is often fatal, the crash can be survivable if several things go right for the pilot, including launching the ejection seat from the plane, then parachuting, evading, and bailing out.

He added in a report published by the American magazine “National Interest” that both recent accidents were resolved through successful rescue operations, pointing out that it is not the first time that American pilots have been exposed to an accident of this kind.

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was full of examples of American aircraft being shot down in enemy territory. In many cases, the pilots were so deep in North Vietnam that their capture or death on the ground was an inevitable outcome.

It can be said that the most famous person among the prisoners is the US Navy pilot, US Senator and later presidential candidate, John McCain, who lived for six years in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison before he was released in 1973.

Pilots whose planes were shot down near South Vietnamese territory sometimes had better luck. In a famous incident that occurred in 1972, a plane called “Bat 21”, a signals intelligence plane behind North Vietnamese lines, was shot down during the Easter Offensive.

The plane was particularly sensitive because the pilot, Gene Hambleton, a lieutenant colonel, knew top-secret information. Hambleton remained on the ground for 11 days, while the rescue operation was huge, in which many aircraft and units participated.

Hambleton was eventually rescued by US Navy SEALs and South Vietnamese commandos in one of the largest combat search and rescue operations ever undertaken.

“Behind enemy lines”

The United States was again faced with the problem of rescuing pilots whose planes were shot down during its air wars over the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In 1995, an F-16C plane, piloted by Captain Scott O’Grady, was shot down by an SA-6 missile over Bosnia.

O’Grady survived, remaining behind enemy lines for six days, eating insects and drinking rainwater. He was able to evade Serbian patrols before the US Marines rescued him using a helicopter. The idea for the film “Behind Enemy Lines,” which was shown in 2001, starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, was inspired by this incident.

In 1999, the F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane was shot down by a Serbian surface-to-air missile. While the plane was ghostly, the incident confirmed that the stealth technology did not make the plane invisible, as the Serbs were able to use flight patterns that could be predicted and shot down the plane, which achieved a huge propaganda victory for them. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Zelko, survived by using an ejection seat and landing safely by parachute, and was rescued within hours by American helicopters.

Learning from experiences

The question here is: What can the United States learn from plane shooting incidents? The downed aircraft cases have conclusively demonstrated that technological superiority does not mean equal immunity. The F-117 was an advanced stealth plane flying over Serbia, a relatively remote area, and yet it was shot down. Asymmetric defense systems are effective against modern aircraft, as demonstrated by the downing of an F-15E last week using a portable anti-aircraft air defense system.

These incidents show that survival training is still important, as military aircraft crew members undergo survival, resistance, evasion and escape training, and are taught survival and evasion tactics in a harsh environment. Pilot Hambleton remained alive for 11 days, while enemy ground forces were searching for him. Pilot O’Grady remained alive for six days, and the F-15 EWSO, which was recovered from Iran, remained alive for 48 hours while being tracked through rugged mountainous terrain.

These cases demonstrated the importance of the American doctrine, which states that any pilot whose plane is shot down will not be abandoned. The recent rescue operation of the F-15 EWSO was conclusive evidence of this, as it involved many aircraft, forces, and even a disinformation campaign launched by the CIA. The United States’ willingness to go to great lengths to recover downed pilots is a source of encouragement and confidence for those who are assigned to operate “behind enemy lines.”