Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 has cast doubt on reports that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft was forced to land using paper maps in Bulgaria after its GPS system was jammed.
Initial accounts claimed that von der Leyen’s aeroplane, travelling from Warsaw to Plovdiv on August 31, lost satellite navigation signals in a suspected Russian interference operation, leaving pilots reliant on paper maps.
Bulgarian officials confirmed there had been disruptions in the airport’s GPS coverage, while the European Commission suggested Moscow was likely responsible. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations.
However, Flightradar24 has now contradicted these claims, stating that its data show no evidence of the aircraft experiencing navigational difficulties.
The service reported that the scheduled flight time was one hour and 48 minutes, with the actual journey lasting one hour and 57 minutes—only a minor delay.
Crucially, the aircraft’s transponder transmitted a consistently strong GPS signal quality throughout the flight. This was measured using the NIC value, which encodes the reliability of navigational data received on board. According to Flightradar24, the NIC readings from take-off to landing indicated no loss of signal.
The platform added that it uses these values to map GPS jamming activity globally, and the data for von der Leyen’s flight did not reflect any disruption.
Von der Leyen went on to complete her visit to Bulgaria, including talks with Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and a tour of a local munitions plant, before departing Plovdiv without further incident.
