US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was forced to make an emergency landing in the UK after the Air Force plane he was travelling on reported a mid-air emergency
A US Air Force plane carrying US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth was forced to divert to the UK following a mid-air emergency.
About 30 minutes into its flight from Brussels to Washington, the Boeing C-32A experienced a “depressurisation issue”, forcing it to descend to 10,000 feet while flying over the Atlantic, according to aviation news network Airlive. Hegseth had been in the Belgian capital for talks at NATO headquarters, where he urged the alliance to increase spending on US weapons for Ukraine.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell later confirmed on X that a crack in the aircraft’s windscreen prompted the emergency landing.
He wrote: “On the way back to the United States from NATO’s Defense Ministers meeting, Secretary of War Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom due to a crack in the aircraft windshield. The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe.”
Hegseth quote-tweeted Parnell, adding: “All good. Thank God. Continue mission!”
The plane was diverted to RAF Mildenhall, a US Air Force base in Suffolk, Airlive reports.
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