Russia suspected of jamming EU chief von der Leyen’s aircraft GPS over Bulgaria • FRANCE 24

As she stepped onto the tarmac in Plavdeiff, the European Commission president may not have been aware of what caused the delay to her flight. The Bulgarian government later announced that the plane’s GPS signal had been disrupted, forcing the plane to circle the airport for an hour, while the pilots relied on instructions from the ground to land safely. The flight wasn’t diverted, but as shown in these animations from a flight tracking website, jamming signals highlighted in red, can be seen over eastern and central Bulgaria, as well as parts of Romania, Turkey, and Greece. In Brussels, the commission’s spokesperson has confirmed what she calls blatant interference by Russia. We are uh of course aware and used to somehow to the threats and intimidations that are regular uh that are regular component of Russia’s hostile behavior. Uh of course this will only uh reinforce even further our unshakable commitment to ramp up defense capabilities and support for Ukraine. In response, the European Commissioner for Defense has announced an increase in the number of low Earth orbit satellites to better detect future interference. GPS jamming has risen sharply since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Fondelion, meanwhile, is continuing her planned tour of EU countries bordering Russia

The GPS system of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s airplane was jammed Sunday shortly before landing in Bulgaria. Bulgarian authorities suspect the disruption was due to Russian interference. EU spokesperson Arianna Podestà said the EU would continue to invest into defense spending even more after the incident. 
#Russia #plane #vonderLeyen

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49 comments

  3. And ofcourse coalition of the unwilling will have their special meeting after their meeting last week

  8. Visibility was perfect. The plane had to circle the airport for an hour while the pilot received instuctions on how to make a visual landing. Did the pilot have a license to fly the plane?

  10. Probably because all those nations around Ukraine are using radars and special airplanes with radars to spy on what Russia is doing? It's a war after all. Stop whining😭😭

  14. Hmmmmm… why wasn't the Russian Ambassador recalled to Denmark to answer questions about this obvious abrogation of international rules?

  19. Everything they will somehow find a way to blame Russia. Your wife had a miscarriage? Its Russia 😂. EU has become so obsessed with Russia that they forgot people they are ruling

  21. Normal airline pilot all need to know how to fly under no gps, also Airliners are equipped with multiple backup navigation systems beside gps like VOR, INS and ADF.

  22. Kedy už konečne prestanete strašiť ľudí v EÚ že Ruská federácia sa chystá po porážke Ukrajiny zaútočiť na EU a NATO ? Chrapac pojebaná.

  33. So nearest neutral territories are 120km away from Plovdiv. Considering that this region is surrounded by NATO countries and nobody cried of Russian activity then this attack was made at least from 1000km away. That basically means that Russia can jam whole Europe and any confrontation with Europe will end up one sided. But we are talking about someone who managed to escape Pfizer scandal and blamed Russia for Hiroshima, so I'll be surprised if there was any problem…

  34. Russia is pushing the boundaries with this kind of irresponsible behaviour. What would be crossing a red line for the EU.

  35. It is a worrying prospect getting on an aircraft if a pilot is unable to fly an aircraft without GPS. These days pilots rely too much on technology to fly an aircraft.

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