WASHINGTON- A military jet carrying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was forced to divert to the United Kingdom on Wednesday after its windshield cracked mid-flight, the second such failure this year involving a C-32 aircraft used for senior U.S. officials.
The Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757, had departed Brussels and was crossing the Atlantic when the crew noticed a fracture spreading across the cockpit glass and declared an emergency. The aircraft descended to 10,000 feet and then began squawking #7700, the code for an aircraft emergency. It landed safely at RAF Mildenhall, where mechanics began inspecting the damage.
In a statement on X, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said “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.”
A C-17 Globemaster III, which was also flying the same route as a backup plane, diverted as well to collect Hegseth and his staff later that evening, flying them back to Joint Base Andrews overnight. Officials said no one was injured and that the diversion was made “out of an abundance of caution.”
The incident echoes a February episode in which a C-32 carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio suffered a similar windshield crack and returned to Andrews shortly after takeoff. Both cases involved aircraft from the small fleet assigned to transport Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials.
Aviation analysts noted that the C-32s—introduced in the 1990s—have logged decades of heavy service and are nearing replacement age.
