Suspicious GPS Disruption in Von der Leyen’s Plane Forces Hard Landing Using Paper Maps
According to the English section of webangah News Agency, citing Mehr News agency, the Financial Times quoted three informed sources saying that a likely Russian attack using jamming weapons caused the positioning systems on the plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to fail, resulting in an emergency landing.
The Financial Times reported that navigation aids on von der Leyen’s plane malfunctioned near Plovdiv Airport in Bulgaria.according to these sources, an investigation into this incident is ongoing under the title “Russian Disruption Operation.”
one source stated, “The GPS across the entire airport area was cut off. After circling for an hour, the pilot decided to land manually using a paper map. The interference operation is undeniable.”
The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority confirmed this event to the Financial Times. The agency claimed that “since February 2022, incidents involving GPS interference-now supplemented by fake calls-have increased substantially. These disruptions compromise accurate GPS signal reception and create various operational challenges for aircraft and ground systems.”
A spokesperson for the European Commission later confirmed this incident and said: “A GPS disruption occurred but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. We have received details from Bulgarian authorities who suspect Russia.”
In response to these allegations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times: ”Your information is incorrect.”
