"Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said the GPS satellite signal transmitting information to von der Leyen's chartered jet was jammed as it approached Plovdiv International Airport in southern Bulgaria on Sunday. We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia, Podesta said on Monday."
"Bulgaria issued a statement saying that the country's Civil Aviation Authority instructed the pilots to resort to terrestrial navigation tools as an alternative method of landing safely. The Financial Times newspaper, which first reported the incident, said the plane was forced to land using paper maps. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations against Russia in comments to the Financial Times, saying your information is incorrect."
A plane carrying European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen experienced GPS jamming while approaching Plovdiv International Airport in Bulgaria, forcing the aircraft to rely on terrestrial navigation and paper maps to land safely. Bulgarian authorities suspect the interference originated from Russia, while the Kremlin denied involvement. The Civil Aviation Authority instructed pilots to use alternative navigation methods. Similar jamming and interference incidents have been reported since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, affecting flights to Tartu and a British defence secretary's aircraft. Von der Leyen was on a four-day tour of EU states on the bloc's eastern flank at the time of the incident.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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