State Department fires back at accusations of ‘empty planes’ rescuing Americans from conflict zones

close

Video

Empty flight in Iran crisis fuels questions over U.S. evacuation response

Lawmakers, private groups call for stronger coordination in conflict-zone rescues. 

FIRST ON FOX: The State Department's account of its evacuation efforts is at odds with on-the-ground reports from private rescue teams who helped extract U.S. citizens from conflict zones during the opening days of the U.S.-Iran conflict.

Bryan Stern, founder and CEO of Grey Bull Rescue, a nonprofit evacuation service, is contesting claims that the State Department offered assistance to every American who asked for it, asserting instead that thousands of U.S. citizens were left trapped by missiles, bombs and security threats crowding airspace in the region.

"It’s not for lack of effort. Our State Department colleagues are tremendous. But their process doesn’t work. There is also no one — there's no job specialty," Stern told Fox News Digital, noting a lack of a dedicated government position for handling evacuations.

The State Department believes it has faithfully administered assistance, noting that a majority of Americans turned away offers of support, choosing to explore other options available to them.

The contrasting assertions raise questions about the logistical efficiency of American rescue efforts while prompting calls from lawmakers for more specialization to get U.S. citizens out of conflict zones in the future.

VETERAN-LED MISSION EVACUATES AMERICANS FROM ISRAEL AS BIDEN'S 'WEAKENED' FOREIGN POLICY BLAMED FOR RISK

Grey Bull founder Bryan Stern, left, pictured alongside a mostly empty evacuation flight, right. (Grey Bull Rescue)

Stern believes slow-moving bureaucracy is preventing the government from fully utilizing its rescue options.

As one data point, Stern pointed to a video sent to Fox News Digital depicting a mostly empty flight from Israel to Florida near the start of the conflict.

A source, who recorded the video, confirmed they had been evacuated by the State Department from Israel on flight LY1017 from Tel Aviv to Miami, Florida, on March 8 — a point at which Stern said Grey Bull Rescue was being flooded with hundreds of evacuation requests.

In response to inquiries about the video, State Department officials said they had booked as many seats on that particular flight as had been available to them by Israel's airlines, given security concerns, and noted that flight LY1017 wasn't a government charter flight. While the government sometimes purchases individual tickets on a commercial flight for evacuations, they rarely buy the entire aircraft’s capacity, sources familiar with the Department’s evacuation practices told Fox News Digital. 

"We invited and assisted hundreds of Americans to depart on El Al flights on March 7, including a flight to Miami, maximizing the capacity made available to us," a State Department official said. "As part of this partnership, we were only given a percentage of seats to fill, not the whole plane. Capacity limitations were affected by security considerations from local authorities."

Beyond that particular instance, Department officials said their offers of assistance outstripped demand on the ground.

WIFE OF AMERICAN HELD HOSTAGE IN AFGHANISTAN REVEALS 'INCREDIBLY CRUSHING' CALL WITH BIDEN AFTER TWO-YEAR WAIT

Rep. Nancy Mace, left, R-S.C. joined Grey Bull Rescue and its founder Bryan Stern, right, on the ground in Israel during the group's evacuation efforts earlier this year. (Grey Bull Rescue)

"Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s leadership, the Department of State has completed approximately 70 government evacuation flights and has safely evacuated thousands of Americans from the Middle East. We have also arranged ground transportation where needed and assisted thousands with onward departure options," a State Department official said.

"The State Department has reached out to every American who has registered interest in our support. Most Americans who requested assistance have declined seats when offered, opting either to remain in country or book commercial flight options which offer greater flexibility in terms of destination and luggage."

Stern believes the scope of the assistance provided is misleading.

"That answer is inaccurate in totality," Stern said.

"There’s a difference between a State Department-contracted aircraft that is filled with Americans to come out and getting them to safety. That’s an evacuation. That’s different from: ‘Hey, go book a commercial ticket. Good luck to you,’" Stern said.

PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM HELPING AMERICANS EVACUATE THE MIDDLE EAST AMID WAR WITH IRAN

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who joined Grey Bull Rescue’s operations in Israel last month, applauded government efforts but believes there is room for reform.

"It really opened my eyes to some of the challenges that we have, the bureaucracy that we have," Mace said.

"I'm going to come back to Washington with some ideas on how to streamline what we currently have and how to ensure that we're allocating resources to the State Department, to [the Department of Homeland Security]."

Like Stern, Mace suggested that part of the problem stems from a lack of a single position in the State Department that deals with rescue efforts.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she traveled to the Middle East on March 8, 2026, after she learned a South Carolina family was trapped in the wake of the Iranian conflict. (Nancy Mace's Office)

Stern, whose group has worked on over 800 missions to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan, Israel and Venezuela, believes current operations have too many moving pieces.

He said his team’s efforts allow him to communicate more directly with Americans requesting assistance.

"We know them, we talk to them 10 times a day. The current manifest we're working right now has 338 people on it. We do a Zoom call once a day with all the families. Because of that kind of thing, the chain between the person and the airplane is zero, because it's us," Stern said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

"With [the Department of State] you’re calling a center in West Virginia, talking to somebody reading a script who doesn’t know anything; they refer you to a website that goes to a data processing thing somewhere which gets [put] onto an Excel spreadsheet."

Over 150,000 Americans have safely returned to the United States since late February, according to State Department officials. Of those, government operations directly assisted 50,000 Americans.