WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in Britain after the windshield cracked while returning to the United States from a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting, but all passengers are safe, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that the plane landed “in accordance with standard procedures.”
After Hegseth left Brussels, an open-source flight tracking device noticed that his C-32 lost altitude and began emitting emergency signals.
Members of the Pentagon press corps did not travel with Hegseth, as has typically happened under previous defense secretaries. Instead, Pentagon reporters were emptying their desks and cleaning their work spaces after rejecting new rules for Pentagon-based journalists.
An Air Force C-32 carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch also flew in February. deported to Washington After a problem occurred with the cockpit windshield. The incident occurred about 90 minutes after takeoff from Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
The C-32, a specially configured version of the Boeing 757-200 commercial aircraft, transports U.S. leaders, including the vice president, first lady, Cabinet members and members of Congress.
