Also: Maybe I am wrong? But video showed it was an F-15E.

Pilot would be in the front seat.
Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) back seat.

Is the white house trying to say it was plausible that one of those guys went without the other?

This doesn't seem like a leak.

That would require Beltway journos to have a shred of dignity and they are fanatically opposed to the very concept