Hegseth’s plane diverted to UK due to cracked windshield on flight from Brussels to US

WASHINGTON AP Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth s plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom because a windshield cracked on a flight back to the U S from a NATO meeting and all aboard are safe the Pentagon commented The plane landed based on standard procedures Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell commented in a post on X After Hegseth left Brussels open source flight trackers spotted his C- lose altitude and begin broadcasting an crisis signal No members of the Pentagon press corps were traveling with Hegseth as was regular practice under previous defense secretaries Instead Pentagon reporters were emptying their desks and cleaning out their workspaces after rejecting new rules for journalists based in the Pentagon In February an Air Force C- carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen Jim Risch was similarly forced to return to Washington after an issue with the cockpit windshield The situation occurred about minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington The C- a specially configured version of the Boeing - commercial airplane transports U S leaders including the vice president first lady and members of the Cabinet and Congress