Budget airlines flying Brits abroad in their thousands have been affected by suspected "extremely dangerous" Russian jamming attacks.
Malicious attacks cripple flight satnavs, leaving aircraft confused about their routes and unable to alert others to their location. Pilots have been forced to take drastic evasive action to avoid obstacles that weren't actually there. An industry source said: “The information from the Russians is spurious. It is extremely dangerous.”
Reports indicate that a staggering 2,309 Ryanair flights and 1,368 Wizz Air planes experienced satnav issues in the Baltic region, near Russia, over the eight months to the end of March. British Airways (82 flights), Jet2 (7 flights), easyJet (4 flights) and TUI (7 flights) were also affected.
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In response, a Ryanair spokesperson assured The Sun: "If any location systems, such as GPS, are not functioning then the crew switch to alternate systems."
The outlet also reported Russia's involvement in jamming and spoofing techniques that disrupt genuine satellite signals from GPS and Europe's Galileo system.
While the European Aviation Safety Agency confirmed instances of jamming and spoofing in January, it didn't identify the culprit. Luc Tytgat, an official at the agency, expressed concern, stating "We have seen a sharp rise in attacks on these systems, which poses a safety risk," as reported by The Sun.
Last month UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps' plane was targeted by hackers during his return journey from Poland. GPSJAM, a global monitoring service for jamming instances, has identified several European destinations that are frequently subjected to high levels of interference.
Countries that have reportedly experienced medium to high levels of jamming in the past month include Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Cyprus. Numerous areas across the Middle East, Russia and the Caucasus have been affected by jamming.
The data logs revealed that the primary hotspots were located in the Baltic and Mediterranean regions. The Sun reported that in the Baltic alone, 46,000 aircraft claimed they were impacted by satnav issues between August and March.
Analysts at GPSJAM informed The Sun that these signals do not definitively prove jamming, adding: "Areas where a significant percentage of aircraft report low navigation accuracy seem to correlate well with areas of known and suspected jamming."
Dr Jack Watling from the Royal United Services Institute think tank told the outlet: "The Russians have long used GPS jamming as a harassment tool, projecting it across Nato borders. "Wherever there is a large Russian garrison you are seeing GPS denial and there is one in Kaliningrad. They just have that stuff switched on because there are standing orders.
EasyJet added it has its own procedures to mitigate against GPS issues. Given that TUI doesn't have any Baltic destinations, it said the seven affected aircraft were probably without passengers and just positioning flights. BA and Jet2 did not respond to The Sun.
Glenn Bradley, from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, insisted that flying remained one of the safest forms of travel. He said: “There are several safety protocols in place to protect navigation systems on commercial aircraft.
