# The F-35 shootdown

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The F-35 shootdown," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-f-35-shootdown/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Footage from the 2026 Iran war showing an F-35 hit by Iranian ground fire, initially dismissed as artificial. John Kiriakou notes the Pentagon confirmed the pilot reached a Middle East airbase wounded, and that nobody explained how a supposedly obliterated adversary had hit an invisible aircraft.*

- **What happened:** An F-35 was hit by Iranian ground fire
- **First reaction online:** That the footage was AI-generated
- **The pilot:** Wounded; reached a Middle East airbase, in stable condition
- **Unanswered question:** How an "obliterated" adversary hit a stealth aircraft
- **Why no ejection:** The aircraft would have gone to Russia and China

**The F-35 shootdown** was an incident of the [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war) that [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) treated as the clearest single refutation of the war's official account of itself.

Footage circulated showing an F-35 being hit by Iranian ground fire. The first response was disbelief, *"at first, people were saying, 'No, it's AI. It's a stealth fighter. They're invisible.'"* Kiriakou's summary is flat: *"No, the Iranians hit it."*[1]

Confirmation came from the Pentagon, which released a statement that the pilot had made it back to an airbase in the Middle East and was in stable condition, wounded badly enough to be admitted to hospital.[1][2]

## The unanswered question

What interested Kiriakou was the silence around it: *"nobody is saying why, how the Iranians, whom, to use the president's word, we have obliterated, he said it twice yesterday, how they were able to hit an invisible plane that is the art of the American force."*[2] The claim he is measuring it against is treated at [the obliteration claim](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-obliteration-claim).

On why the pilot did not eject, his explanation was the aircraft rather than the man: *"probably because he didn't want the Iranians to get the plane. They would turn it over immediately to the Russians and the Chinese and then we're screwed."*[3]

The incident sits underneath his general verdict on the campaign, recorded at [air wars are overrated](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/air-wars-are-overrated).

## See also

- [Air wars are overrated](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/air-wars-are-overrated)
- [The obliteration claim](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-obliteration-claim)
- [F-35 avionics dispute with Israel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/f-35-israel-avionics)
- [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-03-20), at 18:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145C1-XphQs&t=1133s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-03-20), at 19:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145C1-XphQs&t=1164s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-03-20), at 19:54. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145C1-XphQs&t=1194s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-f-35-shootdown/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt