Amid Bulgaria’s claims that Russia jammed the GPS navigation signal on the plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Flightradar24, a flight tracker that shows air traffic in real-time, has issued a clarification countering the allegations.
According to Flightradar, the aircraft's transponder reported good GPS signal quality from takeoff to landing. "We have seen media reports of GPS interference affecting the aircraft carrying Ursula von der Leyen to Plovdiv. The aircraft's transponder reported good GPS signal quality from takeoff to landing," Flightradar said in a statement.
The statement also provided details of what it “deduced from their data”. “The flight was scheduled to take 1 hour and 48 minutes. It took 1 hour and 57 minutes. The aircraft's transponder reported good GPS signal quality from take-off to landing,” the statement on X added.
We are seeing media reports of GPS interference affecting the plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Some reports claim that the aircraft was in a holding pattern for 1 hour.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 1, 2025
This is what we can deduce from our data.
* The flight was scheduled to take 1 hour… pic.twitter.com/qiSNfCTJtZ
This directly counters the EU’s statement on Russia jamming the signals. Following reports of signal jamming, European Commission representative Arianna Podesta confirmed that GPS jamming had occurred. "We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they believe this was due to apparent interference from Russia," Podesta stressed, adding that the pilots had to use a paper map when landing in Plovdiv. von der Leyen's plane landed safely the EC chief would give a press conference in Romania on Tuesday.
The Bulgarian Air Traffic Control confirmed that such an incident had indeed taken place.
However, Russia’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov rubbished the accusations. "Your information is incorrect," Peskov told reporters, without elaborating further.
This isn’t the first time that Bulgaria has had complaints regarding GPS spamming. Since February 2022, the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority claimed to have had a "noticeable increase" in GPS incidents.
The UK, in 2024, alleged that the plane carrying the UK's then-Defence Secretary Grant Schapps was subjected to a spoofing incident - in which legitimate signals are replaced with fake ones, indicating a false location. The plane was then flying near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Poland and Lithuania.
