Are we flying blind?
If the numbers on your plane's navigation screen start acting up, don't panic – cockpits are built with backups for the backups. But ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, planes in Europe's skies haven't been the same.
More and more GPS disruptions cause planes to divert – particularly in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Middle East, and even the Arctic regions. This GPS jamming has significantly increased, mainly due to the proximity to conflict zones, affecting around 1,000 civilian flights daily.
In Latvia, GPS jamming events doubled in 2024, from 342 in 2023 to 707. In Finland, they were recorded 2,800 times, forcing almost every airport in the country to switch to backup landing systems, and some even brought back old-school radio navigation.
According to analysts, these disruptions in the Baltics and Finland are likely linked to Russia. Some GPS interference is coming from Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave between Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea, while others can be traced to Russia's so-called ”shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea.
Some suggest that this is a new layer of hybrid warfare targeting civilian infrastructure. While pilots have backup systems to navigate the sky, growing concerns within the aviation community suggest that GPS jamming could not only compromise flight safety but also become normalised for pilots.