A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at Plovdiv using paper navigation charts after electronic aids failed on approach, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The disruption occurred on Sunday, 31st August, as the aircraft arrived from Warsaw; the crew circled for roughly an hour before conducting a manual landing. The European Commission and Bulgarian authorities said the loss of satellite-based navigation was consistent with suspected Russian interference. The Kremlin has denied responsibility.
Bulgaria’s air navigation service confirmed that GPS reception around Plovdiv Airport was degraded at the time. In a statement, the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority said it had observed a significant increase in GPS jamming and, more recently, spoofing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Such disturbances reduce signal accuracy and can cause operational problems for aircraft and ground systems.
Von der Leyen travelled to Bulgaria to meet Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and to visit the VMZ ordnance plant in Sopot, as part of a programme focused on defence production and support for Ukraine. She departed from Plovdiv without further incident later the same day, according to officials.
According to people briefed on the flight, the aircraft lost access to electronic navigational aids during the approach phase. With satellite-guided procedures unavailable, the pilots reverted to analogue methods and paper charts to complete the landing. The was crew held over the airport for about an hour while assessing options; an EU spokesperson later confirmed the safe arrival and onward departure.
The incident comes amid wider concern inside the EU over the resilience of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) services. In June, 13 member states — including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Finland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and Romania — urged the European Commission to respond to mounting jamming and spoofing within the bloc. The appeal cited risks to aviation and maritime safety and called for coordinated countermeasures.
Estonia has previously said that deliberate interference with GNSS signals breaches international aviation rules and has summoned the Russian embassy over repeated incidents in the Baltic region. In July, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation noted recurring cases of GNSS interference from the Russian Federation affecting international air traffic and called for strict adherence to radio-navigation obligations.
Aviation and maritime operators across Europe’s northern and eastern flanks have reported an uptick in disruptions since 2022. In April 2024, Finnair suspended flights to Tartu in eastern Estonia for a month after two aircraft were unable to land due to GPS outages, resuming services once a non-GPS approach was implemented. Finland later reintroduced ground-based radio-navigation equipment at several regional airports to provide alternatives during periods of interference.
Bulgarian officials have not released detailed technical data from the Plovdiv episode, and attribution remains a matter for national authorities. The European Commission has not announced specific countermeasures in relation to the incident. The case has, however, highlighted the extent to which civil aviation relies on satellite navigation and the value of maintaining resilient back-up procedures — from ground-based radio beacons to analogue flight-deck materials — when satellite signals are unavailable.
Von der Leyen’s visit to Bulgaria proceeded as planned. According to a government notice issued ahead of the trip, she and Prime Minister Zhelyazkov were scheduled to tour the VMZ plant at Sopot, the country’s largest state-owned defence manufacturer.
The FT said three officials familiar with the flight described the Plovdiv disruption as “unequivocal interference”, with one noting that “GPS in the whole airport zone stopped working”. The Commission said the aircraft later departed Plovdiv without issue.
Industry bodies and regulators have warned that sustained GNSS interference can create cascading effects beyond aviation, affecting shipping, telecommunications and time-synchronised infrastructure. EU transport ministries and national authorities have urged operators to ensure that alternative navigation and approach procedures are available, particularly at regional airports where satellite-based approaches are common.
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