European Commission President’s Plane Lost Navigation Due to Electronic Warfare – Russia Suspected

During the landing in Bulgaria, the plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was jammed by electronic warfare, which put it in danger.

This information was confirmed to the Financial Times by the representatives of the European Commission and the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority. 

During the landing in Plovdiv, satellite navigation signals were jammed over the entire airport area, forcing the pilots to keep the plane in the air for more than an hour. Eventually, they landed it manually using paper maps.

“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 Russia’s outright interference,” said the European Commission spokesman.

The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority reported that since 2022, there had been a noticeable increase in the number of cases of jamming GPS signals, and more recently, their substitution with false ones, which creates problems and threats to air traffic.

The European Commission noted that they were seeing an increase in such cases, especially on the eastern flank of the European Union, noting that Europe was then the most affected region in the world in terms of that problem.

The European Commissioner was on her way to meet with Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov to discuss European investments in the Bulgarian defense industry and plans to open a new ammunition and powder plant under the SAFE program.

She arrived there from Warsaw as she continues a tour of Eastern Europe to discuss efforts to improve the EU’s defense capabilities in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia jams the Baltic with electronic warfare

Earlier, Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and the Lithuanian Deputy Defence Minister noted disruptions in the signals of the global satellite navigation system GPS over the Baltic Sea and linked it to Russian actions.

“We are observing these violations. They are also observed over the Baltic Sea by our allies in NATO countries, both in the Baltic States and in Northern Europe, so we are responding. According to our sources, this activity is connected with the activities of the Russian Federation, in particular with sabotage,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

This is already posing threats to air traffic and shipping in the Baltic States. In particular, in June, a passenger plane that was supposed to land in Bydgoszcz was diverted to Poznan due to disruptions.

The Lithuanian official noted that Russia was probably blocking the signals maliciously, having sought to cause as much damage as possible.

“It is important to distinguish whether these are routine or some malicious actions. Obviously, this is closer to something malicious and can really cause us a lot of damage,” added Karolis Aleksa.