© Clker-Free-Vector-Images/pixabay.com They say: nothing unusual.
Bulgarian authorities have refused to investigate the causes of GPS malfunctions at Plovdiv airport, which occurred during the arrival of the plane of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, DW reports.
“There are no grounds for initiating an investigation,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said on September 2. He stressed that such incidents “are not classified as hybrid or cyber challenges.”
According to Zhelyazkov, recorded obstacles are not uncommon.
“Since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, we have seen manifestations of what is called electronic warfare. There is nothing unusual in GPS jamming – it is one of the consequences of military conflicts,” he explained. The prime minister added that such interference was not directed specifically at von der Leyen’s plane.
The incident occurred on August 31: Ursula von der Leyen’s plane, en route from Warsaw to Plovdiv, encountered navigation problems. According to the Financial Times, due to possible signal jamming, the pilots had to navigate using paper maps.
The European Commission confirmed the loss of the signal. EC representative Arianna Podesta said that the Bulgarian authorities hold Russia responsible for the incident. Her colleague Paula Piño recalled that cases of GPS jamming have increased significantly since the start of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.
On the evening of September 2, a plane carrying Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, returning from Helsinki, was unable to land immediately in Vilnius and circled over the central part of the country,