site.btaPresident Radev: Von der Leyen's Flight Jamming Is "Invented Scandal"
Talking to journalists here on Thursday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev dismissed the case with the alleged GPS jamming of European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen's flight in Bulgaria as "an invented scandal" that, as he gathers, was brought to a close by the Transport Minister and the Prime Minister at Parliament earlier in the day.
Approaching Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) on August 31, 2025, an aircraft carrying von der Leyen lost GPS signal but landed safely. On Monday, Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Arianna Podesta said the Commission had been informed by Bulgarian authorities that they suspected "blatant interference by Russia" and added: "We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria," Podesta said. On Thursday, Podesta specified that the Commission had never claimed the GPS jamming "involved targeted actions" and urged EU-level measures against rising jamming near the eastern border.
"No official information has been received about disturbances of any kind from hundreds of aircraft overflying Bulgaria, nor from the parallel functioning of the Air Force helicopters at the Krumovo Air Base," added Radev, who is a jet fighter pilot and former commander of the Bulgarian Air Force. "In aviation, there are multiple back-up of the navigation system, so that if one system is disturbed, you switch to other systems. I don't see any problem," the head of State said further.
During a hearing at the National Assembly on Thursday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said that distorted interpretations of the incident involving von der Leyen’s flight sought to undermine Bulgarian institutions. The onboard systems of the aircraft which brought European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Bulgaria’s Plovdiv Airport on August 31 were fully operational, the flight was continuously monitored by the Air Traffic Services Authority (ATSA), and the plane remained visible to airspace surveillance systems; the delay of the flight was approximately 5 minutes, which is within the permissible limit, Zhelyazkov said.
During a hearing at the National Assembly on Thursday, Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told MPs that distorted interpretations of the incident involving von der Leyen’s flight sought to undermine Bulgarian institutions. The onboard systems of the aircraft which brought the European Commission to Plovdiv Airport on August 31 were fully operational, the flight was continuously monitored by the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority, and the plane remained visible to airspace surveillance systems; the delay of the flight was approximately 5 minutes, which is within the permissible limit, Zhelyazkov pointed out. Speaking to journalists about the incident, Zhelyazkov said: "Such events occur on a daily basis, and aircraft have been taking off and landing long before GPS systems existed."
Deputy Prime Minister and Transport and Communications Minister Grozdan Karadjov said there was no recorded jamming, though the pilot mentioned "some problems with the GPS" and that "there is not a single fact supporting such a claim," Karadjov said.
Interior Minister Daniel Mitov said the disruption was not a cyberattack: "We can state unequivocally that this is not the case," Mitov said.
Vice President Iliana Iotova said the episode dealt "a serious blow" to Bulgaria's image.
/NZ/
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