There is some merit in what you say Dockwell, though the lack of attention to detail, aka laziness, is so typical of journalism today. In my case, I wonder how much of other items which they report and about which I know far less, are inaccurate.
More worrying is this constant harassment by Spain on all fronts which is clearly government backed - if not government inspired. If this continues, the law of averages suggests that it is only a matter of time before something really unpleasant happens, at which point the excrement really will hit the Xpelair.
I see what you say paully, but clearly something was amiss, otherwise the BA flight would not have had to follow the path it did. One imagines the P3 was heading towards the Med, in which case Spain has ample airspace over that area in which to operate without having to apparently enter the minimal airspace over Gibraltar.