EU chief von der Leyen flight suffers GNSS jamming
The commission president was on a four-day trip visiting member states along the EU's eastern border. (credit: Shutterstock)
The European Commission confirmed on Monday that a charter aircraft carrying president Ursula von der Leyen was the target of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) jamming over Bulgaria, forcing it to circle the airport for about an hour.
The president was visiting Plovdiv, a city in southern Bulgaria, on Sunday as part of a four-day trip to seven eastern member states.
Bulgarian authorities believe Russia is responsible for the incident which temporarily disabled the aircraft’s satellite navigation aids. Deputy spokesperson for the commission Arianna Podestà said: “We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect this was due to blatant interference by Russia.”
The aircraft in question, a Dassault Falcon 900LX (tail no: OO-GPE), is operated by Luxembourg-based business aviation operator Luxaviation.
Asked whether the incident was intended to target von der Leyen’s aircraft specifically, Podestà said: “I think the question is best asked to the Russians.”
According to a statement from Bulgarian transport authorities, the aircraft lost its GPS signal on approach to Plovdiv Airport. Air traffic control proposed an alternative approach via ground-based navigation systems. It is possible the aircraft safely landed using an instrument landing system which is in operation on approach to Runway 30.
Russia denies any involvement. “Your information is incorrect,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told The Financial Times on Monday.
GNSS disruptions have been effecting air and sea travel more in Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, 2022. These include jamming and spoofing — a tactic which misleads a GNSS receiver into believing it is located somewhere it is not.
Some member states along the eastern flank of the EU — which runs from Finland to Cyprus — have reported incident levels more than doubling over that period. According to Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokesperson for the commission, eastern Europe is the most affected area globally.
In June, a joint letter signed by the transport ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Finland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and Romania called on the commission to respond to GNSS incidents.
Amongst proposals outlined in the letter, ministers suggest boosting civil-military coordination among member states for shared monitoring, data exchange and possible response to GNSS interference.
According to ICAO data contained within an internal EU document drafted in May, Poland reported 1,908 incidents in October 2024 rising to 2,732 by January 2025. In Latvia there were 790 incidents in October 2024 increasing to 1,288 by January 2025.
However, in Estonia cases actually went down slightly — from 1,150 to 1,085 — highlighting the unpredictability of GNSS disruptions.
In response to the incident, Itkonen confirmed the commission was working on an “aviation-specific plan” with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Eurocontrol to mitigate GNSS disruptions.
Meanwhile, yesterday in Madrid, European Commissioner for defence and space Andrius Kubilius announced plans to deploy additional satellites in low Earth orbit to improve resilience against GNSS disruption.
Luxaviation has been contacted for comment.
The Kremlin has also been contacted for comment.
