European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane lost electronic navigation aids near a Bulgarian airport, forcing pilots to land using paper maps.
Russia is suspected of an interference attack that disabled the GPS on a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, forcing it to land at a Bulgarian airport.
The plane landed safely at Plovdiv airport on Sunday, and Von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of EU nations bordering Russia and Belarus, the commission’s spokesperson Arianna Podesta said on Sept. 1.
“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia,” an EU spokesperson added.
Bulgarian authorities issued a statement saying that “the satellite signal used for the aircraft’s GPS navigation was disrupted. As the aircraft approached Plovdiv Airport, the GPS signal was lost.”
EU officials confirmed the story—first reported by the Financial Times—which said that the GPS jamming deprived the EC president’s plane of electronic navigational aids while on approach to the city’s airport.
The plane had to land using paper maps.
A spokesman from the Bulgarian government told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that there was a “neutralization” of the satellite signal supplying information to the aircraft’s GPS navigation system.
“The ground-based navigation systems used by Bulgaria are independent of GPS systems and allow for safe and reliable landings. We also clarify that there was no need to divert the flight. According to the pre-planned and coordinated program with the EC team, the landing was scheduled at Plovdiv Airport,” he said, according to an English translation of the original text.
Von der Leyen, a major critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, visited Bulgaria on Sunday, where she praised the country, whose largest private employer is a defence company.
“Here, you are producing large quantities of ammunition. Much of which is supporting Ukraine in its fight for freedom. At the beginning of war, one third of the weapons used in Ukraine was coming from Bulgaria,” she said in a statement with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov on Sunday.
By Owen Evans
