Colombia's Avianca grounds flights after incident with Venezuelan jet

Colombia's national airline, Avianca, has cancelled all flights to Venezuela and others that would cross Venezuelan airspace on Saturday, after an incident on Friday.

According to the Colombian Ministry of Defense on Twitter, a Venezuelan fighter jet flew dangerously close to an Avianca jet flying from Madrid to Bogota on Friday night.

The Avianca pilot alerted the Colombian aviation authorities and was instructed to sharply change the flight path. The jet allegedly stayed close to the Avianca plane for four minutes before flying away.

After the plane landed in Bogota, Colombia contacted Venezuela's air defense authorities and were told the jet had been on a "navigation mission".

Following conversations between the two countries' defense and foreign ministers, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino promised a full investigation on the order of President Nicolas Maduro.

Despite this, Avianca has decided to ground a number of flights leaving from Bogota to Caracas until the situation is resolved.

Online information from flight trackers showed other Avianca flights on Friday had avoided crossing over Venezuela. Avianca flights to Peru and Barbados are among those affected.

Venezuela and Colombia have had a tense relationship for years, with Caracas accusing Bogota of leading an economic war to undermine Venezuela.

Their border, which had remained closed for a year, was re-opened in August after President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Maduro met to resolve the issue. Enditem