A Ryanair plane was forced to divert after GPS ‘jamming’ near Russia | The world | news
A Ryanair plane en route from London Luton Airport to Vilnius, Lithuania, was forced to divert to Warsaw, Poland, after experiencing “Global Positioning System (GPS) signal interference” during landing.
The unexpected accident occurred Thursday when the plane, a Boeing 737 MAX 8-200, descended to an altitude of about 850 feet before the pilot aborted the landing and changed course approximately 500 miles to Warsaw.
Lithuanian air traffic officials confirmed that while the damaged plane experienced GPS problems, other flights at Vilnius Airport operated as normal.
A company spokesman said: “All other planes were landing at the airport as usual.” The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense launched an investigation to determine the cause of the disruption.
This incident comes amid ongoing allegations that Russia has deployed equipment capable of jamming Global Positioning System (GPS) signals in areas near NATO’s eastern border.
The Baltic region, along with the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean, has seen an increase in GPS interference attributed to Russian military activity.
GPS signal outages have intensified in Eastern Europe since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) reports “several thousand interference incidents” annually, with Lithuania documenting more than 800 cases in the final months of 2024.
This is a worrying rise compared to the 124 incidents reported in the same period the previous year.
The intervention previously forced Estonia’s Tartu Airport to suspend all flights for a month after two Finnair flights were rerouted to Helsinki due to signal problems.
Similar disruptions have led airports in eastern Finland to reintroduce conventional radio navigation equipment.
Experts have pointed to the Russian military regime known as Topol, said to be based in Kaliningrad, as the likely culprit.
This advanced technology is suspected of emitting false GPS data, which could cause the plane to swerve or dive to avoid non-existent obstacles.
Military analysts believe the Topol devices are designed to disrupt satellite signals, creating an “invisible shield” to protect Russian military assets from satellite-guided weapons.
Russia has denied allegations of intentional GPS jamming, but its activities in areas near NATO borders continue to raise concerns.
Express.co.uk has contacted Ryanair for comment.
