00:00kept voicing her support for the Iranian regime.
00:03We can speak now to Barry Donadio, who's both a former U.S. Air Force and former Secret Service agent.
00:11Many thanks for being with us, Barry.
00:14Just talking about this downed U.S. fighter jet, the fact that one crew member remains still missing right now.
00:22Just talk us through that process to try and locate this missing member of personnel.
00:30Thanks for having me on.
00:31And they probably got a radio call from the aircraft that probably had an in-flight emergency.
00:37The pilot ejected as well as his partner there.
00:41And when they do eject, it seems like they've separated somehow or they may have separated on the ground.
00:46And right away, U.S. forces are going to be mustering up a team to try to recover them as
00:52fast as possible.
00:53There's going to be a lot of assets deployed on a short-term basis
00:57and maybe even a small ground force landing to try to get them out.
01:01You're going to see fighter jets involved.
01:03You're going to see helicopters involved, maybe even a C-130 involved.
01:07And any teams that have the specialty that are in the area to go and get them out,
01:12probably U.S. Air Force power jumpers.
01:15And it is probably one of your more dangerous missions.
01:18You're flying into enemy territory where normally you wouldn't go and try to extract somebody
01:24before they are captured by enemy forces.
01:27So presumably in all of this, every hour, every minute really counts.
01:33Every second counts, actually, because now we see on Iranian television, the Iranians are looking for him.
01:39And when they find him, if they're able to catch him,
01:42he'll be used as a tool for propaganda to try to hurt the United States and its allies.
01:47I mean, if past is prologue in all of this, certainly when it comes to Iraq, for example,
01:53that was also something that was conducted.
01:57That's correct.
01:58We saw Saddam Hussein use those same very exact tactics,
02:02as well with some British civilians early in the war.
02:06He used them and exploited them to try to get propaganda on his end.
02:11However, it did not work in the end.
02:13But this will be a useful tool if the Iranian regime manages to capture our pilot.
02:19And all the more reason why this is an exigent circumstance.
02:22The U.S. forces are doing everything they can to recover him.
02:26Barry, how much of a setback is this for President Trump, who had spoken about air dominance?
02:33Now we see this for the first time, a fighter jet coming down over Iran.
02:37And in that regard, it's punctured essentially that talking point.
02:44Right.
02:45Well, this is a massive air campaign.
02:47There's hundreds of planes up in the air.
02:49It's to be expected, quite frankly.
02:51In any campaign, this can happen.
02:54This is not easy work.
02:56And certainly this isn't Venezuela.
02:58This is Iran.
02:59This is a totally different dynamic.
03:00And this is a war.
03:02They've made no bones about hiding the fact that it's not just a small operation.
03:07This is war.
03:08So we do take casualties in war.
03:10However, the United States, Israel, and even U.K. forces do everything they can to minimize that.
03:16And that's what you're seeing right now.
03:18A massive operation underway to try to retrieve our pilot.
03:23And if the Iranians get him before we do, you're absolutely right.
03:27He will be exploited.
03:28And it will hurt the war effort here, as you know, in the United States, as well as the European
03:33nations.
03:34Every soldier, we're sensitive to every single loss and every single prisoner of war.
03:41Mario Donadio, both a former U.S. Air Force and former Secret Service agent, sharing your insights with us here
03:47on BBC News.
03:48Good to talk to you.
