New Details Of The GPS Jamming On Board Ursula Von Der Leyen's Plane Have Emerged
6- 3.09.2025, 14:04
- 7,564
The incident occurred on the eve of an important meeting of European leaders.
The plane of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at Bulgaria's Plovdiv airport on September 1 after losing its GPS navigation signal. The cause was allegedly intentional interference, which was blamed on Russia, but two days after the incident, new details have emerged.
The Dassault Falcon 900LX aircraft circled the airport for an hour after losing its electronic navigation aids and eventually landed manually, presumably using "paper charts." The Financial Times specifies that GPS navigation was disabled specifically in the Plovdiv area, known as a zone of frequent interference. In turn, the British TV channel Sky News reports that according to the Bulgarian side, the incident is "gross interference by Russia," and with a political context.
Media recalled that the incident occurred on the eve of an important meeting of European leaders on the peacekeeping operation in Ukraine. Expert circles do not rule out that the publication about the alleged jamming could have been used as a political signal and a tool of pressure.
Ursula von der Leyen's plane - experts' comments
Pilot Shawn Fitzpatrick, who was flying in the same area on the day of the incident, noted that Plovdiv airport has long been in the jamming zone. He said pilots routinely turn off GPS receivers and use alternative systems, including instrument landings. At the same time, Fitzpatrick was surprised that the media talked about using "paper maps" for navigation rather than modern tools.
"When I heard they were using paper maps for navigation, I thought, why don't they just have iPads?" - said the pilot.
He added that the whole story about Ursula von der Leyen's plane has "a touch of politics and sensationalism."
The situation was also commented on by Thomas Whittington, an electronic warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies (RUSI). He noted that political overtones are possible.
"I think it's quite difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether her plane was purposefully attacked. But I'm sure it's a very happy coincidence for Putin," the analyst said.
Whittington explained that such an attack could broadcast a message from the Kremlin along the lines of "We're here, we can make your life difficult." But in any case, the Russians' actions are irresponsible, as they threaten international air travel.
Details of the Dassault Falcon 900LX
Whittington noted that Plovdiv is more than 700 kilometers from Sevastopol. Neither Fitzpatrick nor Whittington have publicly gone into the technical details of the incident or even suggested exactly how Russia could have created interference at such a distance that disabled the plane's GPS navigation systems.
According to official data from Flightradar24, on September 1, the Dassault Falcon 900LX on which Ursula von der Leyen was flying did not experience any problems with GPS.
"The flight was supposed to last 1 hour 48 minutes. It lasted 1 hour and 57 minutes. The plane's transponder reported a good quality GPS signal from the moment of takeoff to landing," the report said.
Reminder, the Bulgarian Council of Ministers officially announced that on September 1, during Ursula von der Leyen's flight to Plovdiv, there was a neutralization of the satellite signal transmitting information to the plane's GPS navigation system. The situation allegedly affected not only the plane of the head of the European Commission, but the entire airport.
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