FT: Plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen landed in Bulgaria due to GPS jamming, Russia suspected

Airplane with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at the airport in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv due to a GPS malfunction. The incident is considered an operation of Russian interference, writes The Financial Times, citing three officials with knowledge of the matter.

According to one of the officials, after circling the airport for an hour, the pilot decided to land the plane manually, using paper maps.

"The entire airport area was left without GPS," the official said.

Three officials said they viewed the incident as Russian interference.

The Bulgarian Air Navigation Service confirmed the incident in a comment to the FT. The service noted that since February 2022, there has been a significant increase in GPS jamming, and more recently, signal spoofing.

"Such interference interferes with the accurate reception of signals (GPS – ed.), which leads to various operational problems for aircraft and ground systems," the service explained.

Von der Leyen was flying to Plovdiv from Warsaw to meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and to inspect the munitions plant.

After the visit, the head of the European Commission left Plovdiv on the same plane.

• on March 14, 2024, The Times wrote that Russia could have jammed satellite signal on a plane with British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps.
• on June 30, The Telegraph reported that Russia jammed GPS on hundreds of British military flights.
• In early August 2025, Poland convened a summit of the Baltic Sea countries because of Russia's influence on GPS.