The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had to make an emergency landing at a joint U.S.-UK air base in England while on his way back to the United States after attending a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, October 15. The incident occurred when the windscreen of the C-32A transport plane he was traveling on suddenly cracked.
At the NATO meeting, Hegseth had discussions with member countries regarding defense spending and support for Ukraine in resisting Russian invasion.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated on social media platform X that the “unscheduled landing” was conducted according to standard procedures and that all personnel on board were safe. The cause of the windscreen crack is currently unknown.
The aircraft was diverted to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, a significant base jointly operated by the U.S. and UK, primarily utilized for aerial refueling, intelligence gathering, and special operations support in Europe.
Hegseth responded on X saying, “All is well. Thank God. Mission continues!”
It remains unclear whether Hegseth and his team have departed for the U.S. again.
According to real-time flight tracking data from FlightRadar24, the C-32A transport plane descended to a standard emergency altitude of 10,000 feet near the southwestern Irish coast after taking off from Brussels before turning back. At that time, the aircraft transmitted emergency code 7700.
FlightRadar24 mentioned on X that descending to 10,000 feet is typically related to cabin pressurization issues.
California Aeronautical University noted that code 7700 is an internationally recognized emergency code. It can be set on the transponder for various situations such as aircraft malfunctions, technical problems, medical emergencies, or other safety-threatening conditions to alert ground control for immediate assistance.
The C-32A transport planes, converted from Boeing 757-200 aircraft into military versions, are specifically designed to transport U.S. leaders. When used to transport the Vice President, these aircraft are known as “Air Force Two.” They are also utilized to transport cabinet members, congressmen, and even the First Lady.
Furthermore, these planes can sometimes serve as “Air Force One” when the President travels to smaller airports.
These C-32A transport planes have been in service for several years, and the U.S. Air Force initiated a program to replace them in 2018. However, the Biden administration canceled the funding for the replacement program in 2021 and redirected the funds towards researching new supersonic or hypersonic commercial jets.
In February of this year, an Air Force plane carrying U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, also had to divert due to a problem with the cockpit windscreen.
The aircraft was forced to return to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about 90 minutes after takeoff. The two officials then continued their scheduled trip to Germany and the Middle East by boarding another plane.