Plane that overflew Rock on Sunday was conducting authorised survey

A small Spanish-registered plan that overflew Gibraltar and La Linea multiple times on Sunday had been cleared by the Ministry of Defence and the Gibraltar Government to conduct an aerial survey.

The plane was tracked by plane spotters who tweeted images from flight-monitoring websites showing it zig-zagging over the Rock in a dense flight pattern

“We can confirm that on Sunday 20 November there was a civilian light aircraft conducting a photographic survey over Gibraltar and La Linea,” a spokesperson for the MoD said.

“The aircraft was in communication with Air Traffic Control at all times.”

“NATS was made aware of the flight over Gibraltar, the MOD and the HM GoG authorised the activity.”

There was no information as to who the survey was for, however.

“The survey was conducted by a third party and as such, specific information is not routinely shared,” the spokesperson added.