EU Chief's Plane Affected By Alleged Russian GPS Jamming
The commission president has been touring eastern European Union member states to discuss progress on building up military infrastructure to confront Russian aggression.
A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted by what authorities suspect was Russian signals interference in Bulgaria.
Authorities in Bulgaria have determined that the GPS jamming incident, which affected the plane’s navigation system as it landed in Plovdiv, was likely initiated by Russia, according to a commission spokesperson. The plane landed safely in the eastern Balkan nation after the interference affected the airport, the spokesperson said.
“We are well aware that threats and intimidation are a regular component of Russia’s hostile actions,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The commission president has been touring eastern European Union member states to discuss progress on building up military infrastructure to confront Russian aggression. The bloc is rolling out a €150 billion ($176 billion) loan mechanism to finance defense expenditure as part of the effort.
On Sunday, von der Leyen flew to Bulgaria to tour the country’s biggest state-owned arms factory, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. As the commission-chartered plane approached for landing, the GPS signal disappeared, the Bulgarian government said in a statement.
Bulgaria’s civil aviation authority proposed an alternative approach using ground navigation aids independent of GPS systems and performed a safe landing without redirecting the flight, according to the statement.
GPS jamming incidents have significantly increased across Europe since President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hitting the Global Positioning System, or GPS, and affecting air and maritime communications.
The incidents have been particularly acute in the Baltic Sea region, well to the north of Bulgaria. Estonia’s regulator has said that 85% of flights in the country now experience disruption. They’ve also reported a rapid increase in intentional transmission of faulty coordinates, a practice known as spoofing.
The incident, which was first reported by the Financial Times, underscores the urgency of Von der Leyen’s trip to the east, the spokesperson said.
