State Department Refutes Claims of ‘Empty Planes’ in American Rescue Operations

Private rescue teams and the State Department are at odds regarding evacuation efforts during the recent U.S.-Iran conflict, highlighting potential gaps in the government’s emergency response capabilities for Americans trapped abroad.

Bryan Stern, founder and CEO of Grey Bull Rescue, a nonprofit evacuation service, contests State Department claims that assistance was offered to every American who requested it. According to Stern, thousands of U.S. citizens were left stranded amid missiles, bombs, and security threats disrupting regional airspace.

“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, pointing to the absence of a dedicated government position for handling evacuations.

The discrepancy between official accounts and ground reports raises significant questions about the efficiency of American rescue operations during international crises. Evidence presented by Stern includes video footage of a mostly empty evacuation flight from Israel to Florida in early March, at a time when his organization was reportedly overwhelmed with hundreds of evacuation requests.

State Department officials did not directly address why they had booked only a handful of seats on the flight. Sources familiar with the Department’s evacuation practices noted that the government typically purchases individual tickets rather than entire aircraft capacity.

The Department maintains that their assistance exceeded demand, stating, “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.”

Stern firmly rejects this characterization. “That answer is inaccurate in totality,” he said, emphasizing the difference between a comprehensive evacuation operation and merely suggesting citizens book commercial flights. “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.'”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who personally joined Grey Bull Rescue’s operations in Israel last month, acknowledged government efforts but identified clear areas for improvement. “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].”

Both Mace and Stern highlighted a fundamental structural issue: the lack of a specialized position within the State Department dedicated specifically to coordinating rescue efforts. This gap creates communication and logistical challenges that can leave Americans vulnerable during crises.

Stern’s organization has conducted over 800 missions to evacuate Americans from high-risk locations including Afghanistan, Israel, and Venezuela. He argues that his team’s more direct communication approach with those needing evacuation creates greater efficiency.

“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 explained.

In contrast, he described the State Department’s process as unnecessarily convoluted: “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.”

According to State Department figures, over 43,000 Americans have safely returned to the United States since late February, with government operations directly assisting approximately 30,000 of those citizens. However, the experiences shared by private rescue organizations suggest that significant improvements could be made to ensure no Americans are left behind during future international crises.

The situation highlights a growing debate about the government’s capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to protect citizens abroad during sudden escalations of conflict—and whether structural reforms are needed to better coordinate these critical evacuation efforts.