Two planes flying between Finland and Estonia forced to return to departure airport due to Russian GPS interference

Brussels – Two planes were forced to return to the departure airport because of disturbances to the GPS, the system that reports the aircraft’s position relative to the Earth. It is what happened to two Finnair flights from Helsinki to Tartu in Estonia, a 45-minute flight. Authorities suspect that Russia was responsible for the malfunction of the GPS.

“If someone turns off your headlights while driving at night, it becomes dangerous,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the Financial Times, adding: “Things near the Russian borders are becoming too dangerous to ignore.” Also agreeing and concerned about the situation was Estonia’s Foreign Minister, Margus Tsahknache, who said, “Such actions are a hybrid attack and pose a threat to our people and our security. We will not tolerate them.”

For the Estonian Air Navigation Services Company (EANS), GPS interference has increased recently and is impacting air traffic procedures. The EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, is studying the situation but says that, at the moment, there are no imminent safety problems. Airplanes have various systems that allow them to understand their position. However, approaching Tartu’s small airport at night requires GPS, as the airport does not have instrument landing systems (ILS). This prompted the two crews to decide to return to Helsinki.

It is not the first time Moscow has obscured aircraft tracking signals. On March 14, an RAF (Royal Air Force) aircraft carrying Grant Shapps, UK Secretary of State for Defense, was involved. The jet was without a GPS signal for more than half an hour while airborne in Polish airspace, not far from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad,the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet.

Experts note that provoking momentary damage to the GPS network is feasible with fairly inexpensive equipment. The purpose of such action could be to protect Kaliningrad from drone-led attacks by the Ukrainians. In recent weeks, Kyiv hit the Serpukhov corvette in the port of the Russian exclave. Drones, unlike aircraft, use only GPS to figure out their positioning. A malfunction of this system would be equivalent to putting the drones out of order.