The incident occurred on Wednesday when the plane was flying from Poland near the Kaliningrad region.
Russia jammed the satellite signal on the plane that British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps was using to return home from Poland. This was reported to Reuters by a source in the British government and journalists who flew with the minister.
It is alleged that the GPS signal experienced interference for about 30 minutes while the plane was flying near the border with the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. The plane’s passengers’ mobile phones were unable to connect to the Internet, and the pilots were forced to use alternative methods to determine their location.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed the incident to the agency and added that such GPS outages are often observed near the border with Kaliningrad. However, he noted that the incident did not threaten the safety of the aircraft.
However, British security and defense expert Michael Clarke, in a commentary on Sky News, noted that Russia is being “frivolous and reckless” with aviation security.
“This is not a war zone – this is civil airspace. By obstructing the aircraft, they were also jamming the signals of any other aircraft that might be nearby, so this is a complete violation of civil aviation rules,” the analyst said.
Russia jams GPS signals in Europe
As wrote, back in January, large-scale disruptions in the operation of GPS systems began in Poland and the Baltic countries. According to experts at the American Institute for the Study of War, this was a consequence of the work of Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems in the region.
Later, the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, Martin Herem, reported that cases of jamming of satellite signals had increased significantly. At the same time, he expressed the conviction that it was Russia that was behind this.
