Bulgaria: Confusion over potential GPS malfunction on von der Leyen's plane
The Bulgarian government changes course: first it has no evidence that Russia interfered with the GPS signals of von der Leyen's plane but expresses a suspicion
(Image: aapsky/Shutterstock.com)
On Thursday, the Bulgarian government changed its position on the alleged GPS interference on the plane of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) several times, causing confusion in Brussels. Initially, Sofia denied the reports of GPS signal interference. Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Grozdan Karadzhov said in the morning that there was no evidence of GPS jamming according to the records of the Bulgarian civil and military authorities. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov also told parliament that there had only been a partial signal interruption, as is usual in densely populated areas.
However, a few hours later, in the afternoon, Zhelyazkov changed his statement at a spontaneously convened press conference, according to Politico. He once again blamed Russia's electronic warfare in Ukraine for the incident. The Prime Minister explained that the ground instruments had not detected any interference. However, this did not mean that the equipment on board the aircraft had not been affected. He instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to contact the airline to check the on-board instruments.
Background and inconsistencies
The incident made headlines after the Financial Times reported on Monday that a plane chartered by the EU Commission had lost its GPS signal on approach to Bulgaria's Plovdiv airport. Many observers in Brussels and Sofia immediately blamed Russia and spoke of "brazen interference". The EU Commission confirmed the reports in principle.
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However, analysts quickly expressed doubts about the account. Flight data showed that the GPS signal was never completely lost and that the landing was only delayed by nine minutes. They also proved that the plane had already experienced a GPS malfunction over the Baltic States the day before, but not over Bulgaria. A Commission spokeswoman now emphasized that it had never been claimed that the plane had been deliberately attacked. The Brussels government institution had only pointed out that GPS jamming has been a frequent occurrence in the Baltic region since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
(olb)
