US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plane makes ‘unscheduled landing’ in UK after reporting cracked windshield

The plane reported a general emergency after indicating 7700 code, and thereafter the aircraft was lowered to an altitude of 10,000 feet and later on landed safely at the Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the UK, Bloomberg reported quoting data from Flightaware.com.

On the way back to the United States from NATO’s Defense Ministers meeting, 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…

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) October 15, 2025

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell later confirmed the development and stated, “The plane landed based on standard procedures and everyone onboard, including Secretary Hegseth, is safe.” Hegseth later wrote after the plane landed safely, “All good. Thank God. Continue mission!”

All good. Thank God. Continue mission! https://t.co/kCMmfOvHLX

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) October 15, 2025

The plane started broadcasting “7700 squawk code” on its transponder, which means a plane has a general emergency onboard, which could range from engine failure to depressurisation to a medical emergency, BBC reported.

Earlier, in February, a government plane that was flying US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to turn back due to a crack in one of the windows in its cockpit. Defence ministers had gathered in Brussels for a summit to discuss security in Ukraine.

The plane that Hegseth was travelling on was a Boeing C-32, nearly 30 years old and a modified 757-200 passenger jet, reports stated. It remains unclear what led to the crack in the windshield of the plane.