GPS Jamming Hits Plane Carrying EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Over Bulgaria
Flight AAB53G from Warsaw to Plovid
A Dassault Falcon 900LX carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen experienced GPS jamming while flying over Bulgaria on Monday, in what authorities suspect to be a Russian operation.
The aircraft, believed to be OO-GPE, a Belgian-registered Dassault Falcon 900LX, was operating the route from Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW/EPWA) to Plovdiv Airport (PDV/LBPD) when the interference occurred.
Understanding GPS Spoofing and Jamming
GPS Spoofing
GPS signals are of two types: military P(Y) code, which is encrypted and intended for government use only, and civilian C/A code, which is openly documented for public use. Because the C/A code structure is publicly available, a skilled adversary can recreate it to generate “spoofed” GPS signals. When these signals are transmitted, they can deceive a GPS receiver into miscalculating its position. In other words, the receiver may appear to be somewhere it isn’t, potentially causing serious navigational errors.
GPS Jamming
Unlike spoofing, jamming does not require recreating GPS signals; instead, it disrupts the signals. GPS signals are naturally weak because they travel long distances from satellites to receivers, making them vulnerable to interference. Jamming occurs when a device broadcasts radio frequency (RF) signals at the same frequency as GPS signals, disrupting or completely blocking them. Even small, handheld jammers can affect GPS receivers over several meters.
Military GPS signals using P(Y) code are transmitted at ten times the code rate of civilian C/A signals. This spreads the signal power across a wider frequency range, allowing military receivers to handle much higher levels of jamming than civilian receivers.
According to Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà, the incident did not compromise the safety of the flight. The jet landed safely in Plovdiv, where von der Leyen continued her scheduled tour of European Union nations bordering Russia and Belarus.
“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” Podestà said. “We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.”
