Russia suspected of targeting thousands of British holiday flights in ‘extremely dangerous’ electronic attacks jamming systems including GPS

• 46,000 flights logged satellite navigation issues between August and March
• Jamming hotspots were in the Baltic, Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean

Russia is suspected of launching ‘extremely dangerous’ electronic attacks against thousands of British holiday flights, aviation sources have claimed.

The planes appear to be suffering from GPS jamming and spoofing, which interferes with wireless communication systems and uses fake signals to trick pilots into believing the aircraft is in a different location than where they actually are.

The European Aviation Safety Agency in January warned that authorities had seen a ‘sharp rise’ in jamming and spoofing ‘attacks’, but did not say who was behind them.

But industry experts are now alleging that Putin’s forces are behind the attacks with one insider telling The Sun that the ‘information from the Russians is spurious’.

The suggestion echoes that of an aide who reportedly blamed Russia for the ‘wildly irresponsible’ attack that jammed an RAF plane as it flew through Poland while Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was on board.

Aircraft logs revealed jamming hotspots in the Baltic region, Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean, the newspaper reported.

This came after several reports sounded the alarm over jamming and spoofing events in the region.

The number of suspected Russian satnav attacks was more than 350 per week last month, researchers claim, a significant increase from the fewer than 50 attacks per week that were recorded last year. 

Between August and March, 46,000 flights reportedly logged satellite navigation (satnav) issues over the Baltic region.

Among those were 2,309 Ryanair flights, 1,368 Wizz Air flights, 82 British Airways flights and four EasyJet flights.

Seven planes operated by TUI – which reportedly does not fly in the Baltic – logged satnav issues. The airline said its affected planes were ‘probably positioning flights without passengers’.

Virgin Atlantic, which also does not fly through the region, was the only major UK air carrier not affected by the electronic attacks.

In a statement to the Sun, EasyJet said it has procedures in place to ‘mitigate against GPS issues’.

Similarly, Ryanair told the newspaper: ‘If any location systems, such as GPS, are not functioning then the crew switch to alternate systems.’

Experts note that a ‘significant percentage’ of aircraft reported ‘low navigation accuracy’ appeared to ‘correlate well with areas of known and suspected jamming’.

What are jamming attacks and how do they work?

Jamming attacks involve malicious interference on wireless communications systems, including WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

As the name suggests, the intention of such attacks is to ‘jam’ a network, preventing devices from communicating.

They generally use physical devices to overload a network with strong signals, disrupting usual operations.

There are three key types of jamming attacks:

1. Constant jamming

Constant jamming attacks work by emitting a steady interference signal on the same frequency band. On a Wi-Fi network, this can result in there being no available bandwidth for legitimate traffic, resulting in complete denial of service.

2. Deceptive jamming

Deceptive jamming is usually used to jam GPS devices. Attacks use false signals intended to emulate legitimate, expected signals on a network. As well as disrupting operations, these can be used further in an attempt to bypass encryption or to provide false information.

While details about the latest attacks against British holiday flights remain sparse, it’s likely this is the type of jamming being used. 

3. Reactive jamming

Reactive jamming doesn’t involve sending out a constant signal. Instead, an attacker waits until a legitimate signal is detected and then works to interrupt and replace it with an interference signal using the same frequency. This technique is sometimes used in man-in-the-middle attacks on Wi-Fi networks.

Source: SEON 

Dr Jack Watling, a war expert at the RUSI think tank, told The Sun that Russia has ‘long used GPS jamming as a harassment tool’ and that the country is ‘projecting it across Nato borders’. 

‘Wherever there is a large Russian garrison you are seeing GPS denial and there is one in Kaliningrad,’ he said. ‘They just have that stuff switched on because there are standing orders.’

Defence official have previously accused Moscow of jamming GPS signals over RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, where aircraft a regularly jammed.

Russian jamming equipment is believed to be stationed in nearby Syria.

In March, Russia was accused of Jamming the satellite signal of RAF aircraft carrying Grant Shapps back from Poland.

While defence sources said at the time there was no danger to the Defence Secretary, they called it a ‘wildly irresponsible’ act of electronic warfare.

The GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes as the Dassault ‘Falcon’ 900LX flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad – which sits between Lithuania and Poland and is Russia’s most western territory in Europe.

A top secret Russian electronic weapon allegedly based in Kaliningrad has been suspected of jamming aircraft for months.

Maps plotting where aircraft have experiences GPS jamming show that the exclave appears to be at the centre of many of the incidents.

GPS jamming technology can be operated by other aircraft, including drones. However, it is usually carried out by ground vehicles.

The practice can compromise an aircraft’s navigation and communication systems that are vital for pilots, posing serious safety risks to people onboard. 

Despite the suspected Russian satnav attacks, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) still insists that flying is safe, noting that there are several ‘protocols in place to protect navigation systems on commercial aircraft’.

Glenn Bradley, Head of Flight Operations and the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: ‘Aviation is one of the safest forms of air travel, and there are several safety protocols in place to protect navigation systems on commercial aircraft.

‘GPS jamming does not directly impact the navigation of an aircraft and, while it is a known issue, this does not mean an aircraft has been jammed deliberately.

‘While operators have mitigations in place to assure continued safe operations, we work closely with other aviation regulators, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers to curb and mitigate any risks posed by jamming, and continuously monitor incidents worldwide.’

A spokesperson for easyJet said: ‘There are multiple navigation systems onboard commercial aircraft as well as procedures in place which mitigate against issues with GPS that can occur for various reasons.’ 

Ryanair’s spokesperson added: ‘In recent years there has been a rise in intermittent GPS interference which has affected all airlines. Ryanair aircraft have multiple systems to identify aircraft location, including GPS. 

‘If any of the location systems, such as GPS, are not functioning then the crew, as part of standard operating procedures, switch to one of the alternate systems.’ 

MailOnline has approached WizzAir, TUI, Virgin Atlantic and BA for comment. 

Reports of the electronic attacks came as Ukraine was given a significant boost in its war effort against Russia in the form of the US House of Representatives approving a $61billion military aid package.

The legislation had stalled in US congress for months, leaving Ukrainian troops stretched throughout the winter in their continuing fight.

The funds should now allow Ukraine to switch from desperately holding ground to trying to reclaim the territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the support of the US, Britain and France for Ukraine was stoking serious strategic risks that had raised the risk of a direct confrontation between the world’s biggest nuclear powers.

Lavrov said the United States and NATO were obsessed with the idea of inflicting ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia and there were risks in such confrontation that could lead to an increased level of nuclear danger.

‘The Westerners are teetering dangerously on the brink of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,’ he said.

The United States and its allies say they are helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression and that it is Russia that is aggravating East-West tensions, including by issuing repeated warnings about the danger of a nuclear conflict.

Lavrov said: ‘Of particular concern is the fact that it is the ‘troika’ of Western nuclear states that are among the key sponsors of the criminal Kyiv regime, the main initiators of various provocative steps. We see serious strategic risks in this, leading to an increase in the level of nuclear danger.’

The three Western countries with nuclear weapons are the US, Britain and France.