The Royal Navy flagship, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth ,which will be visiting Palma later this month, is involved in a major search operation to find one of its ultra-modern F35 jets which crashed into the sea in the eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday.
The American-designed and built F35B is full of sensitive and top secret weaponary and sensors and there are reports that the Russian Navy is also hunting for the plane. It was unclear yesterday whether this incident would affect its visit to Palma later this month.
Prince Charles cancelled a planned visit to the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier yesterday as a result of the search operation.
Prince Charles, on a visit to Egypt, had been due to visit the ship which is off Alexandria. But the visit to the ship was cancelled for operational reasons, a spokesman said.
The Lockheed Martin F35B is capable of conducting air-to-surface, electronic warfare, intelligence gathering and air-to-air missions simultaneously, according to the British air force. It can operate undetected in hostile airspace due to secret technology.