Bulgaria says no to investigating von der Leyen plane incident
Ursula von der Leyen (Photo: Getty Images)
Bulgarian authorities will not investigate the GPS malfunction at Plovdiv Airport when a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen landed there, according to Deutsche Welle.
“There is no basis to open an investigation,” he said, adding that such incidents are not classified as hybrid threats.
Zhelyazkov noted that GPS disruptions like the one affecting the EC President’s plane are not uncommon. According to him, there is nothing unusual about GPS jamming, and what happened is a consequence of military conflicts.
"Since the beginning of the war against Ukraine, we have witnessed what is called electronic warfare… These disruptions are not targeted at a specific aircraft," the Bulgarian Prime Minister summarized.
What preceded this
On September 1, it was reported that the plane of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made an emergency landing in Bulgaria on August 31, around midday.
According to media reports, the pilots lost navigation due to possible interference from Russian GPS-jamming systems. During the landing, the pilots had to rely on paper maps.
