Does a video show American F-15 pilot Col. David Eberly after he was captured by Iran in April 2026? No, that's not true: The video shared on social media in the days after an American F-15 fighter jet was shot down during a mission over Iran shows Col. Eberly after his F-15 was shot down over Iraq and he was taken prisoner in 1991. There is no evidence any American pilots or crew members are being held as prisoners in Iran, at the time of writing.
The video appeared in a reel (archived here) published by Mustapha Mohammed Gembu's Facebook account on April 5, 2026, under a caption that read:
The hunter got hunted!
The captured pilot
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by Mustapha Mohammed Gembu on Facebook.)
This is what the first frame of the video looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Mustapha Mohammed Gembu account on Facebook.)
In the video, the captured pilot is asked his name, nationality, and the type of aircraft he flew. He answered that he was Col. David William Eberly from the United States and that his aircraft was an F-15.
An article (archived here) on the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum website documents Col. Eberly's career, including his capture by Iraq and imprisonment in Baghdad after his F-15 was shot down during a mission over Iraq in 1991:
In August 1990, he deployed to Southwest Asia as part of the allied forces supporting Desert Shield and Desert Storm where he served as the Director of Operations of the 4th Fighter Wing (Provisional) flying the F-15E in Oman and Saudi Arabia. During the Gulf War, he participated in the initial air strike into Iraq. On the fourth night of the campaign, he was shot down and, after evading three nights, was captured on the Syrian border. As the senior allied prisoner of war, he was subsequently released on March 5, 1991.
(Image source: National Air and Space Museum.)
