Fox Reporter Says Safety of Downed U.S. Pilot Depends on ‘Sympathies’ of Nearby Iranians

Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt said on-air Friday that the safety of the yet-to-be-rescued downed U.S. pilot depends on the “sympathies” of nearby Iranians.

Amid escalating tensions, Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported Friday that one of the two U.S. crew members from a fighter jet shot down over Iran has been rescued by American special operations forces, while the search for the second remains ongoing.

“Iranian state broadcast is saying now that this plane, this U.S. F-15, was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defense system,” said Hunt.

Of the area where the pilots went down, Hunt continued, “It appears to be a very open area. That is not good, obviously, if you are one of those crew members. You are trying to find cover. At the same time, it’s better, as some of your guests have been saying, being in an urban area where so many people could surround you.”

“[Their safety] also depends, of course, on the sympathies of those people who live, the very few who live in that area,” he stated. “Are they sympathetic towards the Iranian regime? Do they perhaps have some support in their hearts and minds for what the U.S. is doing? We’ll have to see.”

Hunt’s commentary was not received well by some online, with writer Polly Sigh writing on X, “They might have had sympathies and support for the US until [President Donald] Trump and [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth bombed a girls elementary school and threatened to bomb them back to the stone age.”

Here, Sigh is referring to the March Tomahawk missile strike that hit the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, leaving 175 dead, most of whom were children.

Another account wrote in response to Hunt’s comments, “Do they even understand what war is?”

Watch the full clip above via Fox News.

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