GPS jamming, spoofing plague commercial aircraft across Europe, report says

Commercial flights are routinely facing"jamming" or "spoofing" in the airspace around the Baltic Sea, as indicated by a recent report by Newsweek. Over the last couple of days, around 1,614 flights encountered consistent interference with national GPS signals.

The report is based on open-source analysis from an X account that keeps track of GPS interference.A map provided by this source indicated widespread disruptions over Poland and southern Sweden, although a subsequent update suggested that the interference became primarily concentrated in northern Poland.

Interfering with both GPS and broader Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals could potentially lead to confusion for both manned and unmanned aircraft, as their navigation systems might perceive inaccurate locations.

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The increase in disruptions was attributed to jamming activities originating from Russia's Kaliningrad region, positioned between Poland and Lithuania and serving as a strategic location for one of Russia's major naval fleets.

According to an unnamed Lithuanian defence official interviewed by Newsweek, Russia is implicated in the matter. The official stated, "The Russian armed forces possess a diverse range of military equipment specifically designed for interfering with GNSS, encompassing jamming and spoofing, with varying distances, durations, and intensities."

A recurrent problem

Earlier this month, a pilot informed The Telegraph that the problem has become "more widespread" in airspace and areas where military operations or border tensions are on the rise.

"Every flight I operate across northern Turkey and into Iraq - essentially along the Russian and Iranian borders - now has GPS interference. Aircraft systems alert us when something isn't working. We often get numerous alerts in the space of a couple of hours. It's been like that for around a year now," the unnamed pilot said.

"The GPS interference spoofs the aircraft into not knowing its location. Thankfully, we have other systems to mitigate this issue," he added.

The pilot also noted that this issue could diminish some of the pilot's visual situational awareness.

"It's crucial to be aware of what's beneath us in the event of a rapid depressurization, which although rare, is a possible occurrence," stated the pilot, noting that airlines have adapted to this changing environment.

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Furthermore, The Telegraph report indicated that certain commercial airlines have circulated memos to their staff, acknowledging that the problem was "particularly prevalent" over Ankara in Turkey and Baghdad in Iraq. Additionally, it was described as becoming "more widespread" over the eastern Mediterranean, as well as across Cairo in Egypt and Amman in Jordan.

(With inputs from agencies)