Pentagon chief’s plane diverted to UK due to cracked windshield on flight from Brussels back to US
October 15, 2025
The Pentagon says 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. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that the plane landed “based on standard procedures.” After Hegseth left Brussels, open source flight trackers spotted his plane lose altitude and begin broadcasting an emergency signal. In February, an Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman was similarly forced to return to Washington after an issue with the cockpit windshield.