Bulgaria won't investigate GPS interference affecting von der Leyen's plane

Bulgaria will not investigate a GPS signal disruption incident that affected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane.

As reported by Bulgarian public television broadcaster BNT, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said that the incident is not being treated as a hybrid attack or cyberattack.

He noted that modern warfare often involves electronic operations that interfere with the radio frequency spectrum, a phenomenon observed in recent years across conflict zones. 

The prime minister recalled that GPS signal interference has recently been recorded as far as "Helsinki, across the Black Sea, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Cyprus, Syria, and all the way to Tripoli".

Such incidents occur daily, Zhelyazkov said, adding that Bulgarian air traffic authorities had followed all protocols correctly.

The GPS system on von der Leyen’s plane was jammed on 31 August while en route to Bulgaria. Bulgarian authorities suspect Russian interference. 

In response, the EU plans to deploy additional satellites in low Earth orbit to strengthen resilience against GPS jamming and improve detection capabilities.

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any Russian involvement in the aircraft’s navigation system failure, although Bulgarian Interior Minister Daniel Mitov suggested this claim should not be taken at face value.