site.btaNo GPS Jamming Recorded during von der Leyen’s Landing, Deputy PM Karadjov Says

There was no recorded jamming of the GPS signal of the aircraft carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport and Communications Minister Grozdan Karadjov told bTV Thursday.

Karadjov confirmed that in a leaked recording of the exchange between the pilot and the control tower, the pilot mentions “some problems with the GPS.”

“Which GPS are we talking about—the onboard receiver, the computer that processes those signals on board, or something on the ground, i.e. the transmission?” the Deputy PM asked, adding that “neither civil aviation—the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority (BATSA) and the Civil Aviation Administration—nor the Air Force (with monitoring in both Sofia and Plovdiv), where we have serious radio-frequency surveillance, nor even the recordings of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC)—which logs the entire spectrum, including the band used by GPS—show any drop in the GPS signal.”

Karadjov was adamant that no one in the Bulgarian government has misled anyone at the European Commission and denied there had been communications between Sofia and Brussels on the matter.

“The only thing the Bulgarian Civil Aviation Administration forwarded to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is that there is a report of the tower–pilot conversation stating the pilot had a GPS issue,” he said.

He added that once the aircraft landed, the pilot thanked air traffic control for their good guidance and said there had been only “minimal” problems. To clarify the case fully, EASA would need to extract the aircraft’s onboard computers and check what they recorded, the Minister noted.

Based on radio-direction findings and the recordings held by BATSA, the Air Force, and the CRC (an independent body), “there is not a single fact supporting such a claim,” Karadjov reiterated. He added that Vice President Iliana Iotova, who commented on the case yesterday, has full access to Air Force and CRC data and can contact the Ministry of Transport and Communications for information.

Democratic Bulgaria Co-chair Atanas Atanasov called for Denyo Denev's dismissal as acting Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security over the reported GPS incident.

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said Tuesday that there is no reason to investigate the incident involving the EC President's aircraft , as the jamming of a GPS signal is not considered a hybrid or cyber threat. 

Zhelyazkov is scheduled to be heard in Parliament over the matter later on Thursday.