'Air traffic system functional after glitch': Delhi airport announces after mutiple flight disruptions

On Friday (Nov 7), Airports Authority of India (AAI) at Indira Gandhi International Airport addressed a technical issue that caused delays in flights operating in and out of Delhi. Over 400 flights were delayed, which was initially attributed to GPS spoofing. In the statement AAI mentioned, the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) caused delays in processing flight plan messages. The issue was detected on Thursday (Nov 6), in the IP-based AMSS system.

“Immediately, the review meeting was conducted by the Secretary, MoCA, with Chairman AAI, Member ANS, and other officials, and necessary directions were given to address the issues. The OEM was engaged, and additional staff were deployed to manually process Flight Plans for the Air Traffic Control system to ensure uninterrupted and safe air traffic operations immediately,” as noted in the statement.

“A team of ECIL officials and AAI personnel is still on site. The AMSS systems are up and functional now. Due to some backlogs, there may be some delays in the normal functioning of automated operations, but the situation will be normal soon. We regret the inconvenience caused to airlines and passengers.”

GPS spoofing is a phenomenon that is otherwise common in conflict zones; such incidents have been witnessed along the India-Pakistan border. Over 400 flights operating to and from Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport were affected. As fake satellite signals were being transmitted, the aircraft were being mislead about positions, and the outcome was diversions and congestion. This impacted many travelers and delayed scheduled and as a spillover it also affected other airports across the northern region of the country.

As per media reports, the metric calculating the position and accuracy of aircraft which is measured using Navigation Integrity Category value went down to 0, and on a usual day it is 8. These incidents were reported by pilots within 110km radius of Delhi.

What is GPS spoofing?

GPS spoofing is used by the military in combat zones to jam signals. It is a cyberattack wherein fake GPS signals are broadcast to deceive receivers, causing them to report incorrect positions, times, or velocities.

During Operation Sindoor as India and neighbouring Pakistan were embroiled in cross-border fighting, India had jammed Pakistan's Chinese-supplied air defence systems. New Delhi conducted precision strikes deep within Pakistan and PoK to flatten terror infrastructure operating on their soil.