Pilots on commercial flights across several global regions have reported widespread interference with the Global Positioning System (GPS). These events fall into two main categories: jamming, which blocks GPS signals, and spoofing, which provides false location data to the aircraft’s navigation system.

Widespread Documented Incidents

Since late 2023, thousands of flights, particularly over the Baltic Sea region, the Black Sea, and the Middle East, have logged GPS navigation errors. The aviation safety organization OPSGROUP has documented a significant surge in these reports from flight crews. Pilots have reported their navigation systems displaying incorrect positions, sometimes showing the aircraft miles off its actual course or at ground level while at cruising altitude.

In a specific case in April 2024, Finnair temporarily suspended its daily flights to Tartu, Estonia. The airline cited persistent GPS interference that prevented a safe landing approach which relies on GPS signals. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has also issued safety information bulletins acknowledging the increase in GPS jamming and spoofing and providing guidance for flight crews to mitigate the issue.

Official Attribution and Observed Origins

The patterns of interference are geographically linked to conflict zones and military installations. The most intense disruptions in Europe have been concentrated around Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, a heavily militarized territory located between Poland and Lithuania. Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Margus Tsahkna, publicly attributed the GPS disruptions impacting the Baltic region to the Russian Federation.

Prolonged GPS interference has also been consistently reported by aircraft operating in the Eastern Mediterranean and near conflict zones in the Middle East, including Syria. In response to these GPS outages, flight crews are trained to use and rely on alternative navigation methods, such as the aircraft’s Inertial Reference System (IRS), which does not depend on external signals. The continued disruption of GPS signals presents a persistent operational challenge for the global aviation industry.

Source: http://foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/27/air-travel-safety-gps-spoofing-jamming-airplanes/