Commercial pilots have expressed concern about the growing number of incidents of “GPS spoofing”, in which false signals are sent to them during flight.
Aviation officials and regulators have said spoofed Global Positioning System signals are spreading beyond active conflict zones and have recently seen a surge, leading to the disruption of more than 1,000 flights each day in August.
GPS spoofing refers to the deliberate transmission of false signals intended to manipulate a receiver’s perceived location, according to SkAI Data Services.
This type of manipulation tricks the receiver into believing that it is in a different location than its actual position. However, GPS spoofing differs from GPS jamming, which involves disrupting GPS signals, preventing the receiver from fully determining its location.
Confusing navigation and security systems have been known to be used for tactical purposes in war zones, including the Middle East and Ukraine, to repel drones and missiles.
But, according to The Wall Street Journal – citing pilots and aviation experts – the attacks began affecting large numbers of commercial flights about a year ago.
According to analyses by SkAI Data Services and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, the number of flights affected daily increased from a few dozen in February to more than 1,100 in August.
Christopher Behnam, a retired Boeing captain at United Airlines, said he frequently encountered GPS interference while flying in the Middle East.
“We are trained for these things, so you have to stay calm and follow procedure,” Behnam told the WSJ. He said, however, that in certain circumstances such attacks could be “very, very alarming.”
Due to the increase in attacks, airlines and aircraft manufacturers are now working with regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to develop short-term workarounds and longer-term fixes.
Equipment standards to protect civilian aircraft from spoofing will not be published until next year at the earliest, people familiar with the matter said. Wall Street Journal Journal.
Airlines like United and American Airlines have since begun discussing new procedures that would allow pilots to reset cockpit circuit breakers when faced with false GPS data.
Airlines say their pilots are equipped with several means to navigate precisely if they encounter GPS interference.
The FAA also said earlier this year that it had found no evidence of intentional interference and was continuing to investigate the cause.
Despite this, the number of cases has been increasing globally, with flight operations in Europe disrupted by GPS spoofing – although no flights have been put at risk so far, according to Florian Guillermet, executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency.
“The risk is increasing in terms of the number of occurrences,” Guillermet said in June.
