Hi again, everyone. It is 5 o'clock here in New York. I'm Eamman Mohi Dine in for Nicole Wallace.

We are continuing to track the breaking news out of the Middle East that a U.S. F-15 fighter jet was shot down earlier today in Iran.

Here's what we know at this hour. Two U.S. officials confirm that one of the crew members has been rescued.

A massive search and rescue operation remains underway for the other American who was on board.

That mission is in a race against the clock to try to rescue that service member before they are captured by Iran.

Iranian State TV says authorities are asking residents

to find the other American. The status of that service member has been labeled by the U.S.

as duty status whereabouts unknown, which indicates that the U.S. military does not have reason

to believe at this time that the second U.S. service member has been captured.

As for what the search and rescue mission that is currently underway might look like,

here is what former Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, said earlier.

This is dangerous stuff. It's very risky. You're in the middle of an adversary during a time of war. And so whatever

we use to conduct the search and rescue operation is going to be targeted by the Iranians.

I can assure you of one thing, everybody in the U.S. who's there in that area

knows that you will not, cannot leave our people behind to be captured by the Iranians.

Now NBC News reports that according to a U.S. official, two U.S. military helicopters that were involved in the F-15 search and rescue efforts were struck by Iranian fire.

But the service members are still safe.

Today marks the first loss of a jet inside of Iran, and it is a significant escalation to an already deeply unpopular war here, revealing the risks

that U.S. service members continue to face. That risk further underscored by a second combat plane

that went down earlier today. Two U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter tell MS. Now that the

plane crashed near the strait of Hormuz and that the plane's pilot was

successfully rescued by American forces.

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