WASHINGTON - A U.S. Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Munich was forced to return to Washington on Thursday after experiencing a mechanical problem, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
"The Secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft," Bruce said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether Rubio would be able to make it to a meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, planned for Friday morning on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.
The mechanical issue in the C-32 plane, a converted Boeing 757, related to a crack in the cockpit windshield, a U.S. official said, forcing the plane to turn around about 90 minutes after taking off.
Rubio’s plane landed safely at Joint Base Andrews just outside the capital around 10 p.m. It had taken off around 7 p.m.
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