Trump Refuses to Say What US Will Do If Missing Pilot in Iran Is Harmed
Trump refused to say what the US would do if the missing crew member of a downed F-15E in Iran were harmed, saying only "we hope that's not going to happen." Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any "enemy pilot" as search efforts continued.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - As American and Israeli forces raced against time to locate a missing US airman somewhere over Iranian territory, U.S. President Donald Trump made clear on Friday, that he was not prepared to say what the United States would do if the downed crew member were captured or harmed.
In a brief phone interview with The Independent, Trump declined to outline any course of action, saying only: "Well, I can't comment on it because — we hope that's not going to happen," before ending the call.
The missing airman is a weapons system officer — the second crew member of an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down over Iran earlier on Friday, the first American fighter jet downed by Iranian fire since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, 2026. One of the plane's two crew members was located and recovered by combat search and rescue forces shortly after the incident, while the second remains missing. US and Israeli forces are continuing search and rescue operations to reach the airman before Iranian forces do. Israel is actively assisting the United States in the effort.
The stakes of the search were sharpened by developments on the ground inside Iran. Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any "enemy pilot" to police, offering a reward to anyone who did so. The governor of Iran's Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province went further, stating that anyone who captured or killed the downed aviator would be "specially commended."
According to the report, despite being briefed on the shootdown earlier in the day, Trump made no public statements about the incident, he last appeared publicly on Wednesday, when he delivered a televised national address in which he repeated justifications for the war against Iran that he had been posting on social media throughout the conflict.
In that address, he claimed that "never in the history of warfare" had "an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large-scale losses in a matter of weeks," and asserted that Iran's Air Force, Navy, and ballistic missile capabilities were "in ruins" and "gone." He also declared that the US had "beaten and completely decimated Iran" and vowed to "finish the job, and finish it very fast."
The downed F-15E is the fourth American fighter aircraft and the sixth military plane lost since U.S. and Israel launched the air campaign against Tehran on Feb. 28, 2026.
Three US F-15E Strike Eagle jets were previously downed by friendly fire over Kuwait in March. The missing airman is 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, weeks into Operation Iraqi Freedom.