US President Donald Trump says that when military planes were unable to take off with the rescued airman and other personnel, “lighter, faster aircraft” were deployed as a contingency plan and the planes were destroyed.
“We blew them up, to smithereens, because we had equipment on the planes that frankly we’d like to take, but I dont think it was worthwhile spending another four hours there taking it off,” he adds. “We have the best equipment anywhere in the world, we didn’t want anybody examining our anti-aircraft and other equipment.”
