Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov stated on Thursday, September 4th there is “no evidence” of “prolonged interference or jamming” affecting the GPS signal of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane during its landing at Plovdiv airport.
The announcement comes days after the European Commission cited Bulgarian authorities as suggesting the incident may have involved Russian interference.
Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov also denied that the government submitted any information to the Commission indicating Kremlin involvement. He confirmed Bulgarian aviation authorities provided the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) a report of minor GPS issues reported by the pilot, but made no mention of Russia.
“EASA still needs to remove the computers on board the aircraft and see what these computers registered,” Karadjov said.
Analysts told Euronews that interference could have occurred onboard the aircraft or via “spoofing,” although local ground instruments detected no jamming.
Ian Petchenik–—Flightradar24’s director of communications—noted that the aircraft’s transponder consistently reported high-quality GPS data from take-off to landing.
The plane did circle above Plovdiv airport before landing, but the total delay was only about nine minutes, contradicting earlier claims of a one-hour hold-up. Furthermore, Bulgarian authorities confirmed that the pilot used the ILS ground-based navigation system for landing, refuting reports that paper maps were relied upon.
Despite the clarifications, GPS jamming remains a concern in Eastern Europe, particularly near the Baltic Sea, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
