Conflicting reports emerge on suspected Russian GPS jamming of von der Leyen's plane

Reports that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's level was targeted by suspected Russian GPS jamming arsenic she travelled from Warsaw to nan Bulgarian metropolis of Plovdiv connected 31 August person sparked awesome speculation.

Scrutiny has intensified aft official sources flip-flopped betwixt statements, appearing to statement backmost connected early claims that nan disruption had been caused by suspected Russian interference.

The timeline

The Financial Times collapsed nan communicative connected 1 September, reporting that von der Leyen's level — a charter craft operated by Luxembourg hose LuxAviation — circled Plovdiv airdrome for an hour, utilizing insubstantial maps to land, aft being targeted by "suspected Russian GPS interference."

The aforesaid day, nan European Commission stated it had received accusation from nan Bulgarian authorities which suggested that nan alleged jamming was "due to blatant interference from Russia."

Later that day, salient formation search tract FlightRadar24 issued a statement successful which it formed uncertainty complete nan conception location was immoderate GPS jamming successful nan area astir Plovdiv astatine nan clip of nan plane's landing.

The information provided by FlightRadar24 besides revealed that nan formation had taken 9 minutes longer than scheduled, contracting nan original declare made by nan Financial Times that nan craft had been circling Plovdiv airdrome for an hour.

Later, nan Financial Times' claims that "paper maps" had been utilized to behaviour nan landing were contested aft Bulgarian authorities released a connection specifying that a ground-based power navigation strategy known arsenic ILS was used.

As nan communicative unravelled, a signaling successful which nan plane's aviator reported "issues pinch nan GPS" to Bulgarian aerial postulation controllers emerged, seemingly confirming immoderate benignant of interruption to nan aircraft's navigation systems.

But days later, connected 4 September, successful an question and reply pinch Bulgarian transmission bTV, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov denied that nan authorities had submitted immoderate accusation connected nan matter to nan European Commission, contradicting nan Commission's assertion that Bulgarian authorities suspected nan disruption was nan consequence of nan Kremlin's hybrid warfare.

According to nan Deputy Prime Minister, Bulgarian aviation authorities did manus nan European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) a study of nan speech betwixt nan aviator of nan level and nan power tower, but while this speech referred to "minor issues" pinch nan GPS, it did not mention Russian interference. 

"EASA still needs to region nan computers connected committee nan craft and spot what these computers registered," Karadjov added.

Later that day, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, said location was “no evidence" of “prolonged interference aliases jamming" of nan GPS awesome astir Plovdiv airdrome successful an reside to Parliament.

Zhelyazkov later appeared to back-peddle connected his earlier claims, stating that though nary jamming had been detected by "ground instruments", this didn't exclude nan anticipation of "onboard devices" having knowledgeable jamming.

Zhelyazkov subsequently ordered aviation authorities to motorboat an investigation into what happened, contempt Bulgarian authorities initially stating location wouldn't beryllium one.

Conflicting perspectives from analysts

Euronews consulted respective analysts, immoderate of which guidelines by nan anticipation of a "spoofing" aliases "jamming incident," while others firmly asserted that location is nary grounds of GPS jamming successful nan area astir Plovdiv connected nan time successful question.

Ian Petchenik, head of communications for Flightradar24, told Euronews that nan "aircraft's transponder reported bully GPS awesome value from take-off to landing," based connected their study of Navigation Integrity Category (NIC) values, which is an parameter of nan value of navigational information received by nan aircraft.

However, Petchenik added that interference "could person been soul to nan aircraft, aliases from different source."

But Mahmoud Elsanhoury from Finland’s Vaasa University told Euronews that spoofers person developed progressively blase techniques which let them to make it look for illustration a bully awesome level is being transmitted to an aircraft, erstwhile successful reality it is not.

"If nan awesome level is bully and nan aviator is going astir successful circles, this is simply a a very large parameter that it was a spoofing incident", Elsanhoury explained.

Although location is simply a plethora of doubts surrounding this incident, Moscow has intensified GPS jamming targeting planes and ships since it launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful February 2022, chiefly successful nan area surrounding nan Baltic Sea. 

"We are very good alert that unluckily this incident is not circumstantial to nan president, meaning that it occurs connected a very regular ground to galore aircrafts flying successful peculiar adjacent to our eastbound border," a European Commission spokesperson said connected Thursday, adding that "coordinated action from nan European Union is needed" to tackle nan threat.