A Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon has this Tuesday afternoon accidentally fired a missile in Estonian air space. The flight path, location and state of the missile are being investigated, the Estonian air force says on its website. Although the missile has an self-destruct mechanism it's not known yet whether this activated or whether it fell to the ground intact.
Estonian authorities have restricted access to the area and launched a search operation. They have asked anyone who finds anything which could be part of a rocket or missile to not approach or touch it and to immediately call the emergency services. The incident happened at 3:44pm local time and involved a AMRAAM air-to-air missile, 3.7m long, 18cm in diameter and with a range of 100km.
The Spanish aircraft were in the Baltic for a joint exercise with French air forces as part of the NATO mission to respond to incursions by Russian aircraft.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is the newest fighter in the Spanish fleet, incorporating the latest technology. It carries a 27mm Mauser cannon, part of its armament which can also include IRIS-T and AMRAAM missiles, the latter being the type involved in the accident today. Each plane costs 118 million euros (£106 million, $137 million - depending on configuration), with each hour of flight time reported to cost around 15,000€.