The flightradar24 satellite flight tracking platform yesterday observed and documented how a British Royal Air Force Airbus 400 M Atlas turbojet, registration ZM421, positioned at the NATO military base in the usurped Malvinas Islands, made a dangerous and suggestive approach to Aerolíneas Argentinas commercial aircraft ARG1888 and ARG1886 , and Flybondi FBZ5997 and FBZ 5995 , among others, which were operating between Ushuaia and Jorge Newbery Airport between 2 and 2:20 p.m. yesterday.
The incident occurred on the South Atlantic coast, near the province of Santa Cruz, when the Airbus 440 Atlas was 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) away from the route operated at that time by at least five aircraft from the aforementioned companies.
At the same time, coming from the United Kingdom and with a stopover on Ascension Island, an Airbus A330, also belonging to the British Royal Air Force, could also be seen arriving in the Malvinas.
At 14:20, at the point of maximum approximation of the military aircraft with the commercial flights, the Airbus 400 turned off the transponder, so it is very likely that the distance between the Argentine and British aircraft was much shorter than that recorded; a fact that could have been detected by the crews of Flybondi and Aerolíneas Argentinas .