Russia accused of jamming GPS signal on flights from UK causing route chaos
Thousands of holidaymakers flying to and from the UK have been hit by suspected Russian jamming of GPS signals, with aviation experts branding the cyber attack another front in Vladimir Putin’s “Cold War” with the West.
An increasing number of planes carrying passengers from the UK to countries near the Russian border have reported the outages, leaving “scope for errors” for pilots having to navigate flights without GPS.
According to analysis of flight logs from GPS Jam, in the eight months to the end of March, 2,309 Ryanair flights and 1,368 Wizz Air planes logged satnav problems in the Baltic region. A further 82 British Airways flights, seven from Jet2, four easyJet flights and seven operated by TUI were also affected. Suspected Russian interference with GPS signals increased from fewer than 50 incidents a week last year to more than 350 a week in March.