Secretary of State Marco Rubio was aboard a plane headed to Munich on Thursday night that turned around after it “experienced a mechanical issue,” according to the State Department.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement that the problem was a cracked windshield and that Rubio “intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate air craft.”
Rubio’s plane, which was headed to Munich, Germany, for the Munich Security Conference this weekend, landed back at Joint Base Andrews at around 10:00 p.m. ET.
Vice President JD Vance and a bipartisan delegation of 18 lawmakers led by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., are also scheduled to attend the conference, which is a forum for international security policy.
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine dominated last year’s conference, and it’s expected to be a central topic at this weekend’s summit as well.
President Donald Trump sent Vance, Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and special Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg to Europe for a series of high-level meetings.
In a separate incident in the German city, dozens of people were injured Thursday after a vehicle plowed into a crowd. German authorities have referred to the incident as a “suspected attack.”
