GPS jamming caused a plane carrying EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen to crash in Bulgaria, where according to officials, Russia is to blame.
Von der Leyen’s chartered jet reportedly encountered a jam as it approached Plovdiv International Airport in southern Bulgaria on Sunday, according to Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta.
“We can confirm that there was jamming, GPS, and GPS, but the plane safely landed in Bulgaria.” The Bulgarian authorities have provided us with information that suggests that Russia is blatantly behind this, according to Podesta on Monday.
Bulgaria’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that it had advised the pilots to use “terrestrial navigation tools” as an alternative way to land safely.
The plane was forced to land using “paper maps,” according to the Financial Times newspaper, which first covered the incident.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, responded to the Financial Times by saying “your information is incorrect.”
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging , dozens of attacks, and other incidents, including jamming, which involves producing a strong radio signal that overwhelms communications since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Due to congestion, a Finnish airline was forced to temporarily suspend flights to Tartu, Estonia, in April of last year. A plane carrying the British defense secretary was stranded on its way to Russia a month earlier when its satellite signal was jammed.
Von der Leyen visited Bulgaria as part of a four-day tour of “front line” European Union member states that are viewed as more vulnerable to Russian threats, such as Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Podesta argued that the incident would “intensify the bloc’s unwavering commitment to increase defense capabilities and support for Ukraine,” underscoring the commission president’s “urgency” in the region.
In the event of a three-and-a-half-year Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western powers are discussing how to guarantee Ukraine’s security.
At the beginning of his second term as president, US President Donald Trump attempted to restart diplomatic relations with Russia, but diplomatic efforts have slowed.
Source: Aljazeera
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