Old Gulf War video misrepresented as clip of US pilot captured in Iran

"Iran captures a US F-15 fighter jet crew member and shows him to the media," reads a Malay-language Facebook post shared on April 5, 2026. 

It includes black-and-white footage of a man who identifies himself as Colonel David William Eberly answering questions from an unseen interviewer. Text overlaid on the video repeats the claim.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on April 7, 2026 with a red X added by AFP

Iranian forces shot down a US F-15 fighter jet on April 3, with the jet's two-person crew -- one pilot and a weapons system operator -- ejecting and landing in different locations inside Iranian territory and prompting a high-risk rescue mission (archived link).

Meanwhile, Iran claimed that the US operation was "completely foiled" with its Revolutionary Guards posting a photo purporting to show the "skull of an American soldier amid the debris of a destroyed airplane" (archived here and here).

The Guards gave no further information except to add "more proof of the humiliating defeat of the liar Trump".

The clip of the pilot being interviewed was shared with a similar claim on TikTok and by users in India, Indonesia, France and Pakistan.

However, the video is unrelated to the war in Iran -- the pilot was picked up by a flight of rescue helicopters, while the weapons system operator was injured but managed to evade Iranian forces, traverse rough terrain, treat his own wounds and contact American forces with his location, according to Trump.

Neither the pilot nor the weapons system operator has been named publicly.

A reverse image search found an Instagram post from April 5 with the same colour footage of the pilot. The clip shared in the false posts is mirrored (archived link).

The video's caption reads: "Throwback to the 1991 Gulf War when US Air Force Colonel David William Eberly was shot down over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. After evading capture for several days, he was taken by Iraqi forces and later seen in interrogation footage.

"Eberly remained a prisoner of war until his release in March 1991, highlighting the risks faced by pilots during the conflict."

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the Instagram post

A Google keyword search found Eberly's information on a website for American ex-prisoners of war (archived link).

According to the website, Eberly was held in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War, in which the United States led a coalition of 35 countries in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait (archived link). 

The website also listed a book by Eberly titled "Faith Beyond Belief", in which he recounts being shot down and captured in Iraq in 1991 (archived link).

Further searches found an interview with Eberly and his wife speaking about his captivity, uploaded to YouTube on July 15, 2010 (archived link).

AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation triggered by the war in the Middle East.