Cracked windscreen forces US defence secretary’s plane to land in UK

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s plane made an unscheduled landing in the UK, during a return flight headed for the US, the Pentagon said on X.

The plane carrying Hegseth on his way back from Nato’s Defence Minister meeting in Belgium had a “crack in the aircraft windshield”.

“The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe,” the government said.

Hegseth later wrote after landing: “All good. Thank God. Continue mission!”

BBC Verify tracked the plane, and found that it began losing altitude off the south-west coast of Ireland. It then headed back east, having dropped to an altitude of 10,000 feet, accoring to FlightRadar24.

At this time, the plane started broadcasting a “7700 squawk code” on its transponder. These are relayed to signify a general emergency onboard, ranging from engine failure to depressurisation to a medical emergency.

It subsequently landed at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk shortly after 19:00 BST (18:00 GMT), according to publicly available flight tracking data.

In February a government plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to turn back due to a crack in the window of the cockpit, as well.

Defence ministers had gathered in Belgium on Wednesday to discuss security in Ukraine.