A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at the airport in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv using paper maps due to GPS malfunctions.
Points of attention
- Russian interference and GPS failures resulted in an emergency landing of Ursula von der Leyen's plane in Bulgaria.
- The incident highlights the growing threat of GPS jamming incidents to aviation safety since February 2022.
- The pilot was forced to land the plane manually using paper maps due to the disruption of electronic navigation aids.
Russia prevented Ursula von der Leyen's plane from landing
The plane carrying the EC President was left without electronic navigation aids during its approach to the city's airport.
According to three informed officials, the incident is being viewed as an operation of Russian interference.
"The GPS in the entire airport area stopped working," said one of the officials.
After an hour of circling the airport, the plane's pilot made the decision to land manually using paper maps, they added.
"It was an undeniable intervention," one of the sources added.
The Bulgarian Air Traffic Control Service confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times.
Since February 2022, there has been a significant increase in cases of (GPS) jamming and, more recently, signal spoofing.
As noted by the department, such interference disrupts the accuracy of GPS signal reception, leading to various operational problems for aircraft and ground systems.
Von der Leyen flew to Plovdiv from Warsaw to meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and to visit a munitions factory.
After the visit, the head of the European Commission left Plovdiv on the same plane without incident.
