{"id":36379,"date":"2025-09-01T11:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/36379\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:34:06","slug":"ursula-von-der-leyens-plane-targeted-by-suspected-russian-gps-interference-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/36379\/","title":{"rendered":"Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s plane targeted by suspected Russian GPS interference \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A suspected Russian<\/a> interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport and forced the European Commission president\u2019s aircraft to land using paper maps.<\/p>\n

A jet carrying von der Leyen to Plovdiv on Sunday afternoon was deprived of electronic navigational aids while on approach to the city\u2019s airport, in what three officials briefed on the incident said was being treated as a Russian interference operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole airport area GPS went dark,\u201d said one of the officials. After circling the airport for an hour, the pilot took the decision to land the plane manually using analogue maps, they added. \u201cIt was undeniable interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kremlin and European Commission have been approached for comment. The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince February 2022, there has been a notable increase in [GPS] jamming and, recently, spoofing occurrences,\u201d it said. \u201cThese interferences disrupt the accurate reception of [GPS] signals, leading to various operational challenges for aircraft and ground systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0EU states working on plans for postwar military deployments to UkraineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

So-called GPS jamming and spoofing, which distorts or prevents access to the satellite-based navigation system, was traditionally deployed by military and intelligence services to defend sensitive sites, but has increasingly been used by countries such as Russia as a means of disrupting civilian life.<\/p>\n

EU governments have warned that rising GPS jamming blamed on Russia risks causing a major air disaster by essentially blinding commercial aircraft mid-journey.<\/p>\n

GPS jamming incidents have risen significantly in the Baltic Sea and eastern European states close to Russia in recent years, affecting aircraft, boats and civilians who use the service for day-to-day navigation.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen was flying from Warsaw to the central Bulgarian city to meet the country\u2019s prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, and tour an ammunition factory. <\/p>\n

The commission president was on a tour of the EU\u2019s frontline states to discuss efforts to improve the bloc\u2019s defensive readiness in response to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Russian president Vladimir] Putin<\/a> has not changed, and he will not change,\u201d von der Leyen told reporters while on the ground in Bulgaria on Sunday. \u201cHe is a predator. He can only be kept in check through strong deterrence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulgaria has been one of the most important European suppliers of military equipment to Ukraine, initially of legacy Soviet-era weaponry in the opening months of the war, and now of artillery and other products produced by the country\u2019s large defence industry.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen left Plovdiv on the same plane without incident after the visit. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A suspected Russian interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13178,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,550,7,8,2264,4894,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-36379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-bulgaria","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-ukraine-crisis","23":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}