A US Air Force plane carrying the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch to the Munich Security Conference has returned to Washington due to a "mechanical malfunction".
This was reported by the Associated Press.
"Secretary of State Rubioʼs plane experienced a mechanical failure en route from Washington to Munich this evening [February 13]," the State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Bruce added that the plane turned around and is returning to Joint Air Force Base Andrews in Maryland.
The Associated Press writes that the problem arose with the windshield of the planeʼs cockpit — it was discovered an hour and a half after takeoff.
Rubio will fly to the conference on a different plane, but, as the publication notes, it is unknown whether he will now be able to make it to the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the US Vice President Jay Dee Vance, which is scheduled for the morning of February 14.
- The Munich Security Conference is the worldʼs largest international security conference, where military and national leaders discuss issues of war and peace. On February 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the conference and meet for the first time with top officials from the Donald Trump administration. They will discuss how to fulfill one of the US presidentʼs campaign promises — to end war on the European continent.
- On the evening of February 13, Trump announced a possible meeting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States at the Munich Conference. However, the Ukrainian Presidentʼs communications advisor Dmytro Lytvyn noted that "talks with the Russians in Munich are not expected".
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