Spain PM plane turns back

A plane carrying Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy from Dublin to Madrid returned to the Irish capital shortly after takeoff because a warning light came on, officials say.

The Spanish air force Falcon plane "returned as a precaution" to Dublin on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Spanish government said.

Rajoy was in Dublin for a congress of the European People's Party that picked former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker as their candidate to be the next European Commission president.

In January another Spanish air force plane carrying Crown Prince Felipe from Santo Domingo to Tegucigalpa in Honduras was forced to return to the capital of the Dominican Republic after a warning light came on.

In November 2013 his departure to Brazil from Madrid was delayed after the Airbus 310 plane which he was scheduled to take suffered technical problems.