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U.S. Economy Added 178,000 Jobs In March, Unemployment Rate Dips; One Of Two Crew Rescued After Fighter Jet Shot Down In Iran; Artemis II Crew Releases Stunning First Images From Space. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Also, warmer weather appeared to help leisure and hospitality and construction, both of them adding jobs. Manufacturing adding jobs as well. However, other parts of the economy lost jobs. Another 18,000 jobs lost in the federal government.

And finance and information also lost jobs. We should keep an eye on that because that may reflect some impact from artificial intelligence. And now, Boris, the focus is on how the job market reacts to higher energy prices and to the war in the Middle East.

I think the good news is that today's report suggests that the job market entered this latest shock from a position of strength. Back to you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Matt Egan, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A search and rescue mission underway for a missing crew member after a U.S. fighter jet is shot down over Iran. Another crew member was rescued by the U.S. military and is now receiving medical attention. We'll have the latest on that story ahead.

Prisoner release. Cuba's government will free over 2,000 prisoners. It's the largest such release in years as the regime is facing increasing pressure from the Trump administration.

And the beauty of our planet seen from space. NASA releasing pictures of our home taken by the Artemis II astronauts on their voyage to the dark side of the moon.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

First to the Breaking News, sources telling CNN American forces have rescued one of two crew members after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Right now, the U.S. military is conducting an urgent and dangerous search inside Iran for that second service member. Let's go to CNN's Matthew Chance, who is monitoring the situation from Doha in Qatar. Matthew, give us the latest on the search and what we're learning about how this jet was taken down.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, Brianna, details are still extremely sketchy. We know from our sources that at least one of the crew members, as you just mentioned, has been rescued by U.S. search and rescue teams. We understand that he is -- that that crew member is alive and is being given medical attention right now.

There's no indication, though, about the welfare or the whereabouts of the second crew member. These F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft have two people on board, two crew members, a pilot and a weapons officer. We don't know which of the of the crew members has been rescued so far. But obviously, those search and rescue operations are continuing.

We also understand the Iranians are, of course, looking as hard as they can to see if they can capture one of those American crewmen as well. Make no mistake though, Brianna, this is an incredibly significant moment in the Iran War, because it's the first time that a U.S. warplane has been shot down over Iran since this war began at the end of -- since it began at the end of February.

And I think it underlines two things. Firstly, that the longer this conflict goes on and President Trump has now extended it by what he says are two or three weeks, the more the risk is to U.S. service personnel. There have already been 13 American service personnel killed in the war so far and something like 365 people injured, according to the latest reports that were updated today.

Now, that's obviously tragic, but it's also a growing political liability for the U.S. presence as he presses ahead with this, you know, essentially unpopular war of choice. Secondly, the shoot down also comes after President Trump and other members of his administration have repeatedly told us that the war is virtually won and the United States enjoys complete air superiority in the skies over the Islamic Republic.

Now, that is clearly, after the events of today, an overstatement. Now, we don't know exactly how the aircraft was shot down. That hasn't been made clear. But even if Iran's anti-aircraft defenses have been massively defeated in this air campaigns, and I'm sure they have been degraded enormously, in a country where there are weapons like MANPADS, those shoulder launched, highly portable anti-aircraft systems, air superiority, as we are seeing now, cannot be absolute.

And I think that sort of underlines just how risky this conflict continues to be, Brianna.

KEILAR: What is Iran saying about this, Matthew?

CHANCE: Yeah, well, I mean, Iran is obviously rejoicing in the fact that this plane has been shot down. The state-run Tasnim Agency, and I've got a report from them here, saying that the search for any missing crew has so far been unsuccessful. [14:05:00]

So they haven't found the other U.S. crew member yet either. Separately, the Fars News Agency, which is an Iranian news agency, is saying that a reward is being offered for anyone capturing what they call an enemy pilot or pilots. Separately, there has been officials making statements basically criticizing the United States for the situation it currently finds itself in, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you for the report from the region. Boris?

SANCHEZ: So just two days ago, during a primetime address, President Trump told the nation that much of Iran's military had been destroyed and that the regime had very few missiles left. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House for us. Kristen, what is the president saying now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, the president's not saying anything. The last time we heard from him was about five hours ago when he talked about, if they stayed longer in Iran, they could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that's intentional.

We know that the U.S. president has been briefed, but that the White House wants all communications on this as of now to go through U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon. They want everything to be streamlined. They want everybody to be on the same page. They know this is sensitive and they don't want anyone going rogue and giving misinformation.

And does that make sense? That includes the president himself. So right now, we have not heard from him. Now there's a chance we could see him later on camera. He does have a number of events that are technically closed to the press right now.

But of course, President Trump is known to open those up last minute, get the cameras there and make a statement, particularly when it comes to something serious like this. And I do want to just point to one thing Matthew Chance was talking about, this comment from President Trump and really from the administration that the U.S. had total air superiority over Iran.

I want to read you a direct quote of something he told reporters just last week. He said, "We literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country. They can't do a thing about it." So clearly, those remarks are now going to be assessed and parsed and trying to figure out what exactly is going on when it comes to the U.S. control or some control that they have in Iran.

And the quick thing to note here, Vice President Vance has arrived. We have seen or we've been told that President Trump has gone to various areas of the West Wing that he is being continually briefed. And hours ago, we were told that Central Command was going to put out their first statements on this.

We have still not seen any statements on this directly about the rescue, about the capture, about the U.S. service members or the crew. So we're still waiting to see what the narrative is coming out of the White House, the Pentagon, the administration as a whole.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House. Thank you so much for that update.

Still to come, much more on this search and rescue operation in Iran. We're actually going to walk through what the wreckage photos could tell us about what happened.

Plus, we're on Day 3 of the historic moon mission. We have an update on Artemis II when we come back on "CNN News Central."

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[14:12:51]

SANCHEZ: Stay on top of our Breaking News this hour. Sources tell CNN one of two crew members have been rescued after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Images of the wreckage shared by Iranian state media match that of a U.S. F-15, including this ejection seat that appears to be damaged. Let's take a closer look now with Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton, we didn't see the seat there, but I'm sure you have the image here. When you see something like this, you hear that one of the crew members was rescued, no determination yet on the other one. What scenarios come to mind?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So there are a lot of scenarios that come to mind here, Boris, but as you can see, this, of course, is the ejection seat right here. It appears to have some damage associated with it. This would be consistent with an explosion that would be a natural part of the actual ejection.

So basically, these have an explosive charge. These ejection seats have an explosive charge underneath them, and that forces, that explosive charge when activated, forces the person that's sitting in the seat up, out of the aircraft, and then that's when the parachutes are deployed and things like that happen. So this is, you know, not inconsistent with a safe ejection, and it's something that is definitely survivable from that, assuming that the impact and everything was, as we see here, where it's everything is kind of right side up in this case.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. When it was initially reported, state media in Iran suggested that this was an F-35 stealth fighter jet, but upon closer inspection of some of the photos of the wreckage, analysts have since determined that this is more likely an F-15. It's more consistent with the makeup of an F-15.

LEIGHTON: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Let's understand.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, that is absolutely right. So, you know, you basically look at the type of metal that is used in this particular case. You look at the markings and you look at the way in which all of this is, you know, printed in, stenciled in here and the type of rivets that you see, all of that is consistent with an F-15.

It is definitely not an F-35, and that is important because an F-15 is not a stealth aircraft. The F-35 is a stealth aircraft, and it's harder to detect, almost impossible for standard radar to detect the F-35.

[14:15:00]

F-15 can be detected by radar.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, if it were an F-35, I imagine that it would symbolize a different capacity for Iran's military, whereas this does not. I do want to get your thoughts on the video that was geolocated by CNN, showing a plane flying low over the ground while two helicopters are nearby. It's believed to be part of the rescue operation. Walk us through what's happening.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, so what you see here is there's a refueling aircraft here. That's a C-130, an HC-130, and that's designed to refuel helicopters like this. These are probably the HH-60 helicopters that are being used by the Air Force's search-and-rescue capability. There's a search-and-rescue unit that's out of the 1st Special Operations Wing that could possibly be involved in this, and these aircraft are designed to extend the range of the helicopters so they can go further into the area that we have here.

So when you look at the area that you see here, this is in southwestern Iran called Khuzestan Province. This is the area where this is most likely to have occurred, and it is an area where they would have had the capability to refuel even in Iranian airspace, so that that could then extend their range into other parts of Iran if necessary.

SANCHEZ: Put this into context for us, because even if it is an F-15 and not an F-35, there is still some symbolism to draw from this, especially because just a few nights ago, you had the president of the United States touting the U.S. military's ability to destroy Iran's offensive capability.

We've heard the defense secretary talking about dominion over the skies of Iran. This contradicts that to a degree.

LEIGHTON: To a degree it does, yeah. And so you see -- when you look at all of these strikes right here, there's a considerable amount of effort that was put into this, so there's no doubt that basically thousands of strike sorties were flown against western Iran, southern Iran, and of course, the area around Tehran.

And when you look at the concentration right here of strikes in this area, and then you look at the types of strikes that were done here in the western part of the country and in the central part of the country, you can see that there are a lot of areas that have been hit. And of course, the Iranians are doing the same thing over here in Israel as well.

But having said all of that, the key thing is this. No matter how often you strike at targets like this, there are still capabilities that are existent within the Iranian arsenal. CNN reporting has at least half of the missile forces that were believed to have existed before the war still in existence right now, and one of the reasons for that is the way that they can disperse these forces. They have them on mobile launchers, they have them, you know, on trucks basically to go all over the place that are harder to detect, and plus they bury them underground.

So they have these hardened tunnels that are designed specifically to survive these kinds of attacks. Iran has been preparing for this kind of a war for a very long time, and we're seeing the results of that preparation. It doesn't mean that they're winning, but what it does mean is that they have a capability to not only fight back, but they have a capability to down some of our aircraft if we're not careful and if the proper defenses aren't dispersed by the aircraft itself.

F-15 does have the capability to disperse some defensive chaff, for example, which is like aluminum foil coming out of the aircraft. But be that as it may, they can do a lot of damage, you know, to aircraft like that, especially if it's a heat-seeking missile as opposed to a radar missile.

SANCHEZ: Colonel Cedric Leighton, appreciate the expertise, thanks for joining us.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still to come, a live report from Tel Aviv, because Israel is now pausing some of its planned strikes on Iran as U.S. forces search for that missing service member. And we're going to check in with our reporters at Johnson Space Center in Houston, they're tracking the historic Artemis II space mission, and will bring us an update right after this.

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[14:23:50]

KEILAR: Here in the next hour, we are going to get an update from NASA on the mission that has mesmerized all of us down here on Earth as astronauts are traveling to the moon for the first time in half a century. Today, we received the first spectacular images of Artemis II's historic voyage. Mission Commander, Reid Wiseman, took them with his tablet, showing the planet from "pole to pole." The four astronauts crossing a critical marker yesterday, executing the final big engine burn that will slingshot them toward and then around the moon, taking humans farther than we have ever been.

And in the meantime, the crew has, as the commander described it, plenty of science to do. CNN's Ed Lavandera is at Johnson Space Center in Texas He's tracking it all. And Ed, the astronauts will be able to connect with their families soon, which is so lovely.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely huge moment. You think about what it's been like for them, that's so much to do as they were orbiting the Earth and preparing for that translunar injection, a moment yesterday, that burn that has propelled them on this four-day course to reach the moon.

[14:25:00]

And they actually did a little round of interviews with journalists here on Earth. But now, they'll get some private time to be able to connect with their family members, who they last saw on the ground there at Kennedy Space Center just a few days ago. So this will be the first time for them to connect with them and kind of tell them about what their experience has been like.

And it is actually just riveting to listen to them talk about what their experiences have been so far. But now they're on this long journey to the moon. As I mentioned, about four days long. So there's a lot of preparation work that needs to be done. They're in the process of going to be doing various tests of their deep space communication system. And remember, all of this is a test mission.

So all of these systems and every little aspect of this space capsule needs to be tested and put through trials to make sure that future missions can rely on this Orion capsule properly in missions in the years ahead. So that's part of what they're doing. So reconfiguring the cabin inside the capsule, so that they can work properly.

Also, we should be getting even more stunning images. At some point, I think today, there will be a moment where the solar panels that are used to help power up and provide power to the capsule will have cameras on them. So it sounds like the capsule will be positioned in a way where you can see the capsule with the Earth and the moon behind it.

So the imagery is just going to be simply stunning. But we hope to hear more here, as you mentioned, Brianna, in about an hour or so when we get the latest briefing and update from NASA officials here at the Johnson Space Center.

KEILAR: And so what happens when they do get to the far side of the moon, Ed?

LAVANDERA: Well, this is going to be the moment, right? It's like 30 to 50 minutes where they're going to be without communication, completely blocked off from the rest of the world.

But it's also a really important time for them because that's one of the things and one of the crucial moments that they're going to be able to use the cameras that they have on board. And one of the things that they need to do is capture really detailed images of the lunar surface.

This is a part of the moon that they're going to be flying by that, from what I understand, not even Apollo missions got a clean look at it. So they're going to be exploring and photographing with very high- powered cameras to be able to get images. These could turn out to be areas that might be landing zones in the years ahead. So that kind of detail.

They've been trained in geology to kind of be able to map out the lunar surface and study it from their vantage point, which is going to be about 4,000 miles or so. Brianna?

KEILAR: That is unbelievable. All right, Ed, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Next, back to our Breaking News. An American service member is missing inside of Iran after their fighter jet was shot down. And we are live from the region with the latest on search and rescue efforts right after this.

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