As U.S. and Israeli forces search for an F-15 crew member forced to eject after being shot down over Iran, President Donald Trump isn’t yet ready to say what the U.S. will do if the missing crew member is harmed.
In a brief Friday phone interview with The Independent, the president declined to say what his course of action might be if Iranian forces get to the downed airman — the first American aviator to be shot down over enemy territory since an A-10 “Warthog” pilot ejected into Iraq after being struck by a surface-to-air missile in April 2003, just weeks into Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Asked what he’d do if the pilot is captured or harmed by Iranians, Trump replied: “Well, I can’t comment on it because — we hope that’s not going to happen,” and ended the call shortly thereafter.
Trump’s hope for the safe return of the missing Air Force officer came as Combat Search and Rescue forces from Israel and the United States were searching for the crew member, hours after they were forced to eject from their two-person fighter over Iranian territory.
Since the F-15 downing, Iranian state television has urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward for anyone who does so, while the governor of Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province said anyone who captured or killed the downed aviator would be “specially commended.”
The downed F-15 is the fourth American fighter aircraft — and the sixth military plane — lost since Trump started the massive air campaign against Tehran on February 28. Three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jets were downed by friendly fire over Kuwait in March.
One of the plane’s two pilots was found by Combat Search and Rescue crews shortly after the incident, while the second pilot, a weapons system officer, remains missing. U.S. forces are racing to recover the pilot before Iranian forces can reach them. Israel is helping the United States with the search and rescue operation.
The president has not made any public statements about the shoot-down even as White House officials said he’d been briefed earlier in the day, although he has continued to post on Truth Social about the war without referencing Friday’s stunning turn of events.
As rescue efforts were ongoing, he took to his Truth Social account to advocate for seizing Iran’s natural resources once more, writing: “TAKE THE OIL, ANYONE?”
Trump has not been seen publicly since late Wednesday when he delivered a disjointed national TV address in which he repeated the same justifications for his war with Iran that he’s been posting on social media throughout the month-long conflict.
At the time, the president bragged that “never in the history of warfare” had “an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large-scale losses in a matter of weeks” and claimed Iran’s Air Force, Navy and ballistic missile capabilities were “in ruins” and “gone,” respectively.
He also said the U.S. had “beaten and completely decimated Iran” and was “going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast.”
According to The Washington Post, a second aircraft, an A-10, was also hit by enemy fire around the same time as the F-15.
The pilot of that aircraft, which was designed with heavy armor to destroy Soviet-made tanks during the Cold War, managed to maneuver their plane into Kuwaiti airspace and ejected to safety there.
The Post also reported that two helicopters involved in the search for the downed F-15 pilot came under fire and were forced to retreat.
Shortly before the jet was shot down on Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social:
“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A “GUSHER” FOR THE WORLD??? President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have roiled stock markets, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and threatened to raise the cost of many basic goods, including food.
On Friday, Trump celebrated the bombing of an Iranian bridge, as he warned on social media that there was “much more to follow.” Footage showed the moment the B1 bridge in Karaj, west of Tehran, was cut in half by the strike on Thursday. The attack killed eight people and wounded 95, Iranian news media reported.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes, the Associated Press reported. In a review released Friday, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based group, said it found that civilian casualties were clustered around strikes on security and state-linked sites “rather than indiscriminate bombardment” of urban areas.
Trump has threatened further escalation, warning of potential strikes on Iran’s energy grid if the strait is not reopened. Iranian officials have rejected negotiations under current conditions.
He told NBC News in a separate phone interview Friday that the day’s events would not have an impact on any ceasefire talks and remarked that the U.S. is “at war.”
“No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” Trump said.
