From Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, the Faraday curtain falls over European airspace from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. More than 46,000 aircraft have reported GPS problems when flying over the Baltic region since August last year, based on guardian. Although aviation officials do not believe Russia is intentionally targeting foreign civilian aircraft, the interference still poses a safety risk. It’s been a decade since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down eastern Ukraine of Russian separatists.
News week report that the recent increase in GPS interference is due to multiple jammers located in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic coast. Organized area an important Russian naval base and borders Poland and Lithuania. There are many different types of GPS jamming, all of which are potentially dangerous. A plane’s GPS can be spoofed to fool the crew into believing they are somewhere else, at a different altitude, or even flying at a different speed.
Glenn Bradley, head of flight operations at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Talk to Guardian, “GPS jamming does not directly affect aircraft navigation, and although this is a known issue, this does not mean the aircraft has been intentionally jammed.” Commercial aircraft also have a surplus. Pilots have many systems at their disposal to determine the aircraft’s position in addition to GPS.
However, there is an underlying fear when overcoming Russian airspace Noteworthy. Nearly 300 people died in 2014 when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down while flying at an altitude of 10.2 km Ukraine. Since then, airlines have taken extra precautions to divert around conflict zones, but GPS interference can make close flights more dangerous than necessary.
