This morning, four ‘Matador’ aircraft of the Spanish Air Force entered Gibraltar’s airspace from the north-west. It is believed that the aircraft were flying towards the Juan Carlos 1 aircraft carrier which, at the time, was about 12 nautical miles south- east of the Rock.

At no time did the aircraft make contact with Gibraltar’s air-traffic control and the Spanish air-traffic authorities in Seville gave no warning of the aircrafts’ approach. However, Seville then held back the outgoing BA flight for 12 minutes at Gibraltar airport until it was safe for it to take off.

HM Government of Gibraltar has called on the UK to take up the matter of this military incursion into the airspace of Gibraltar at the highest diplomatic and military levels.

(Pics below, courtesy Daniel Ferro, show Juan Carlos I carrier and newer version of Navy jet involved in today's incident)