A display by the Red Arrows over Gibraltar appears to have been cancelled this morning after a similar show over Minorca suffered the same fate, Spanish media said. Minorca was left stunned on Monday night when it was reported that the British Ministry of Defence had cancelled the event. Tensions between Britain and Spain over the display in Gibraltar were blamed. It now appears that both performances by the elite RAF squadron have been abandoned.
Spain was said to be furious over the Gibraltar display, claiming that the Red Arrows would have "invaded" Spanish airspace. Organisers in Minorca said that they had all the correct paperwork.
The Foreign Office in Spain issued the following announcement on Monday night: "Unfortunately, we are required to cancel the Red Arrows display planned for tomorrow (today) in Minorca. The organisation of international airshows is hugely complex and on this occasion unforeseen circumstances have arisen that mean the airshow cannot take place tomorrow (today).
"We are hugely grateful to the Minorcan authorities for their support on the preparations and we sincerely regret the short notice of this cancellation. "We hope the Red Arrows can return another time."
There is expected to be some major fallout from the decision on Minorca today. As one local resident said: "it is not a question of the display being cancelled it was the lateness in which the decision was announced...."