Alarm bells rang in the Strait of Hormuz after a U.S. Army helicopter went down off the coast of Oman.
The incident occurred June 8 at about 7:33 p.m. ET and allegedly involved U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division. At first, it was unclear whether the helicopter, an AH-64 Apache, experienced mechanical problems or if it had been shot down by Iranian forces, but on June 9, President Donald Trump said it was indeed attacked by Iran and vowed to respond "out of necessity."
"I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Tuesday. "Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack."
In a post on X, U.S. Central Command said two crew members were rescued after the helicopter went down while conducting a patrol over regional waters. According to CENTCOM, the soldiers were recovered by a sea drone within about two hours of the incident and are in stable condition.
"The cause of the incident is under investigation," CENTCOM wrote.
As NPR noted, Apache helicopters have been a key component of U.S. operations targeting Iranian crude oil shipments and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The helicopters have also been used by the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian drones during the conflict.
President Donald Trump said on Monday the two U.S. Army personnel aboard the helicopter were not injured in the incident.
"The pilots are fine. Yeah," Trump said. "Nobody injured. We are going to issue a report tomorrow. But the pilots are fine."
It remains unclear how the incident will affect the ceasefire. Despite several flare-ups across the region, both sides have continued peace talks.
Speaking with reporters at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on June 8, Trump had said the United States and Iran were moving closer to a deal to end the war.
"We have a good chance" of reaching a deal in "two or three days," Trump said, according to NPR.
"We're very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal," the president said. "If we go and bomb, which we could do very easily if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing, they'll have nothing left whatsoever. But you won't have the strait open for months."
As reported by TIME, the U.S. has lost several aircraft since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28.
In March, three U.S. F-15E fighter jets went down in a friendly-fire incident involving Kuwaiti air defenses. In a separate incident, six crew members were killed when a U.S. refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq.
In April, an F-15E fighter jet carrying two crew members crashed inside Iran. One crew member was rescued quickly, while the other was rescued 48 hours later.
