Forum Topic

EU chief's plane hit by suspected Russian GPS jamming

EU chief von der Leyen's plane hit by suspected Russian GPS jammingThe navigation system of a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted due to suspected Russian interference, the European Commission said.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9d07z1439zoAlso here:Ursula von der Leyen’s plane forced to land blind after ‘Russia jams GPS’European Commission president’s flight has navigation services disabled, with pilot having to rely on paper mapshttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/01/ursula-von-der-leyen-plane-forced-land-blind-russia/Russia is suspected of jamming navigation on EU leader’s plane above Bulgaria, an official sayshttps://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/russia-suspected-jamming-radar-eu-102709340.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD-cSQKsFc05xXN0FyVIR0796Uo4m_l6z9SmOf0fEz-U8qd9HSMhXBNcN810iVnd3p7s2fMyHBwEavFMSzlQqXR0JTJk006iEuKnqNjbjCVr6mxUJXJQi4nMG4nbIzwsAreA6ZmV-h0rO9_rMo2Rg0P4rl_k4RLR0McgUk3xbyyd

Ivonne Holliday ● 2d11 Comments

First of all EU leaders should not be flying around Europe on private 14 seater jets not when we have a climate emergency or is that no longer a thing??Secondly reports did not mention a private jet.The next point is that the story appears to be over egged in several areas with anonymous sources quoting paper charts and other such nonsense.A quick fact check against several international websites highlight that the aircraft in question has other electronic systems besides GPS to aid landing.Also the GPS tracking websites do not confirm the hour delay mentioned. Bulgarian sources make no mention of paper charts. Although travelling in London on transport may lead to think we live in the dark ages this does not apply to the rest of the world!"The plane is equipped with every available advanced navigation system, ensuring extremely accurate positioning in space. No “paper maps” are used on the Falcon 900LX."Did the aircraft experience GPS jamming? Probably we will need to see the final aviation report.Was this accurate journalism? Looks more like spin and omission and lacking basic fact checking. Possibly a cut and paste (electronic not scissors and glue) job echoed that sadly people still pay for."This is what we can deduce from our data.* The flight was scheduled to take 1 hour and 48 minutes. It took 1 hour and 57 minutes.* The aircraft's transponder reported good GPS signal quality from take-off to landing"https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1962565122326700178?t=ibq3ZhyVLZFX4Al4cHP6BQ&s=19

Ed Robinson ● 11h

Well, i doubt the Russians would attempt.to attack Air Force One, wel, not why Putin is pretending to be Trump's friend. But I think the amount of electrinic protection and communications in it makes it a fruitless task. Im not sure how specific GPS jamming is. It's probably a regional effect, so any use of GPS in that area is affected.There're ground based countermeasures that measure the GPS error and broadcast correction. 

Michael Ixer ● 1d

Absolutely true, Michael!My point was that, had it been a scheduled airline with her on board, they would have mentioned the airline.  The same flight without her on board would not have had much of a mention.However, my point was that the title of the article was something to the effect of:"von der Leyen plane..."  In other words, it was not a scheduled airline but a "private" jet.  At the end of the day, the plane she was travelling in had "interference" ......It was easier, from a PR point of view, to jam the GPS on a private plane (trying to prove something?) as opposed to interfering with the GPS of a scheduled airline.  The proof of the pudding was who was travelling in that plane.  I doubt it would have happened of Trump was in it........

Ivonne Holliday ● 1d

Ivonne.  A slightly flippant comment by me, if it had been scheduled airline with her on it would have got the same press, but not if it was just a routine flight whatever the airline...

Michael Ixer ● 1d

I agree with you Michael, no doubt about it.However, had it been a Brussels Airline, would the coverage have been less?  Had it been a British Airways flight,would it have been the same?  I wonder...It is my personal view, grant you, but I doubt that Ursula von der Leyen would travel in a Ryanair - or Easyjet for that matter - airline.  I wouldn't.  I have flown Easyjet but refuse to fly Ryanair - a personal choice.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1d

From the point of view of the jamming threat it's irrelevant whether it was a private or scheduled airlike; the threat and risk would be similar. A cyber security contact who does some work in the aviation sector, and is also an amateur pilot, who posted on LinkedIn seemed to think the risk wasn't that great because of other technologies such as instrument landing systems. That is, it gets a lot of press because Van der Leyen was on board, if it was a Ryanair flight to Greece it would get a brief one paragraph ...

Michael Ixer ● 1d

No, that is not true.Alll headlines spoke of "EU chief von der Leyen's plane hit by suspected Russian GPS jamming"The Telegraph has a photograph of the plane.If it had been a regular flight, I would have thought they would have mentioned the airline and not Von de Leyen's plane.  Don't you think?

Ivonne Holliday ● 1d

Looks like the jamming equipment removed the words "private jet" from many of the headlines too.

Ed Robinson ● 1d

I agree, Michael.  Bulgaria, Romania even, make the jamming very suspicious indeed...

Ivonne Holliday ● 2d

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2025/07/02/researchers-home-in-on-origins-of-russias-baltic-gps-jamming/

Michael Ixer ● 2d

Haven't got references to hand, but it's been a problem for commercial airlines flying near Russia for a while (Baltic states, Poland, etc). Some incidents seem to be deliberate, others probably collateral fallout from jamming Ukrainian drones etc. Over Bulgaria, one might think it's deliberate?

Michael Ixer ● 2d