US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s airplane made an unscheduled touchdown within the UK, throughout a return flight headed for the US, the Pentagon stated on X.
The airplane carrying Hegseth on his manner again from Nato’s Defence Minister assembly in Belgium had a “crack within the plane windshield”.
“The airplane landed primarily based on commonplace procedures and everybody onboard, together with Secretary Hegseth, is secure,” the federal government stated.
Hegseth later wrote after touchdown: “All good. Thank God. Proceed mission!”
BBC Confirm tracked the airplane, and located that it started dropping altitude off the south-west coast of Eire. It then headed again east, having dropped to an altitude of 10,000 ft, accoring to FlightRadar24.
At the moment, the airplane began broadcasting a “7700 squawk code” on its transponder. These are relayed to indicate a basic emergency onboard, starting from engine failure to depressurisation to a medical emergency.
In February a authorities airplane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio needed to flip again as a consequence of a crack within the window of the cockpit, as nicely.
Defence ministers had gathered in Belgium on Wednesday to debate safety in Ukraine.
