Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

WASHINGTON — An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return to Washington late Thursday after developing a mechanical issue.

''This evening, en route from Washington to Munich, the plane on which Secretary Rubio is flying experienced a mechanical issue,'' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

''The plane has turned around and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,'' she said. ''The secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft.''

The issue with what one official said had to do with the cockpit windshield on the C-32, a converted Boeing 757, occurred about 90 minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.

Although Rubio plans to resume his journey on a new plane, it was not immediately clear if the delay would cause him to miss a scheduled Friday morning meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich.