The Ryanair flight from the UK was forced to abort its landing and divert to Poland following mysterious interference just as it was about to touch down in Lithuania
A Ryanair flight was reportedly forced to abort after its GPS “jammed” while following a route around Russia.
The plane – a Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 – left from London’s Luton airport on Thursday, and was descending into Vilnius Airport when it was forced to make a quick change. The plane had to kick back into gear and fly several hundred kilometres into Warsaw, Poland, after it had started lowering into the Lithuanian capital.
Lithuanian air navigation personnel said the plane had experienced some “GPS signal interference” forcing the pilot into the snap decision to divert. The plane had lowered to an altitude of around 850 feet (259 metres) before it was forced to lift off again and fly to Warsaw, around 400km (249 miles) away.
A spokesperson for Oro navigacija said the pilot decided to divert while other flights operated as normal, adding: “All other planes were landing at the airport as usual.” Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene told reporters following the incident that the government would investigate.
The unusual incident took place inside a region in which Estonia and Finland last year alleged Russia has placed equipment that jams GPS navigation devices. The Baltic Sea is one of three regions, including the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean, where the Russian military has been the most active, with an increase in GPS disruption following their presence.
Russia has denied claims it has deliberately disrupted signals, but GPS issues have still impacted eastern Europe in areas close to the NATO border with Russia. Tartu airport in Estonia, the country’s second largest, suspended all of its flight for a month last year due to what was branded an “extremely dangerous” issue that meant two Finnair flights were forced to return to Helsinki.
Juho Sinkkonen, Finnair’s vice-president for flight operations, told the BBC last year that aircraft landing at the airport encounter the issue on a daily basis. He said at the time: “Pilots are reporting cases actively, and we get more than 100 reports per month.” The issue ultimately ended up as a “nuisance”, and carried few risks.
Experts have said the issue of GPS jamming has existed since before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. But Cyrille Rosay, a senior cybersecurity expert at the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), said it has worsened since February 2022 when it was launched, adding his organisation now tracks “several thousand incidents” a year.