[longblack]

I think the sentence is referring to aircraft that have been forced to land by the enemy, in contrast to "grounded" aircraft that had not taken flight.

I haven't worked in aviation so my understanding of terminology could be wrong, but either way it is definitely an unusual example.

[gpm]

"The enemy landed 4 of our aircraft" without context wouldn't generally mean "forced to land" imo (as a native speaker). It would mean that they either destroyed them or managed to acquire them.

For example I might say that "they landed 4 aircraft with their daring" if they forced us to abandon an air craft carrier (e.g. by sinking it) and then managed to steal 4 of the planes (before it sunk). Or I might say "they landed 4 aircraft with that bomb" if they dropped a bomb on an airfield and it destroyed 4 aircraft.

[mike00632]

Right, I think you understand the word as I do: 'verb' + ed. "The enemy landed the jet" as in they forced the jet to land either directly or indirectly. This would mean that the two sentences use "landed" the same way. But my understanding is SuperGLUE's offical answer is that these use "landed" differently with the rational that "landed" is idiomatic and just means to procure or bring about (e.g. "I landed the job") and it happens to be used with planes.

[michaelt]

A fishing boat can land a big catch - and a sales executive might have landed a big deal, perhaps after reeling them in or having them on the hook.

So this would be particularly apt wording if the enemy had thrown a net over the plane as it sank in the ocean.

But I prefer to think the enemy gifted british country estates to the planes.