‘Russian jamming attacks’ on British holiday flights spark fears for air passenger safety – World News

Thousands of flights carrying British tourists have reportedly been hit by suspected Russian jamming attacks, raising fears over the use of this ‘dangerous’ tactic.

Jamming attacks cripple navigation systems, leaving planes unsure of routes and even struggling to alert others to their position. The attacks led pilots to perform drastic maneuvers to avoid obstacles that weren’t actually there.

An estimated 2,309 Ryanair flights and 1,368 Wizz Air aircraft were reported with navigation problems in the Baltic region, near Russia, in the eight months to the end of March. Around 82 British Airways flights, seven Jet2, four EasyJet and seven TUI flights were also affected.

Ryanair told The Sun: “If location systems, such as GPS, fail to function, crews switch to alternative systems.” The newspaper reported that Vladimir Putin’s interference also included jamming and spoofing. Jamming attacks disrupt real signals from satellites, including GPS and Europe’s Galileo system.

The European Aviation Safety Agency said in January that there were problems with jamming and spoofing, but did not comment on who was behind it. “We have seen a sharp increase in attacks on these systems, which poses a security risk,” said the agency’s Luc Tytgat, according to The Sun.

Last month, The Mirror reported how British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps’ plane was attacked by hackers on its way back from Poland. According to GPSJAM, which monitors interference around the world, there are several European destinations that experience a lot of interference.

Areas reported to have experienced medium to high levels of jamming over the past month include Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Cyprus. The Mirror found that many other areas in the Middle East, Russia and the Caucasus were experiencing jamming.

Logs showed that the hotspots were in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The Sun reported that in the Baltic Sea alone, 46,000 planes said they suffered navigation problems between August and March.

GPSJAM analysts told The Sun that the signals do not conclusively prove interference, adding: “Areas where a significant percentage of aircraft report low navigation accuracy appear to correlate well with areas of known and suspected interference. ”

Dr. Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute think tank told the paper: “The Russians have long used GPS jamming as a tool of intimidation, projecting it across NATO borders. “Wherever there is a large Russian garrison you see GPS denial and there is one in Kaliningrad. They just turned that stuff on because there are standing orders.”