[ Fake News] Von der Leyen Jammed
Another blatant fake news is being spun to paint the Russians as the ultimate bad guys. The truth? Neither the GPS on von der Leyen’s plane nor the airport’s was ever jammed.
While the English-speaking media treads carefully, French outlets like Le Figaro go all-in : “Russia deliberately attacked the EU Commission President with its cunning hybrid warfare tactics.”
They want us to think an airplane is helpless without GPS. That’s nonsense. Crucial flight data—altitude, speed, and direction—come from robust, redundant onboard sensors (AHRS and Pitot), purely analog.
Flight plans rarely depend on GPS anyway. Pilots rely on far more reliable ground-based systems, like VOR for navigation or ILS for precision instrument landings. Autopilots use indifferently GPS and VORs.
A VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) is a ground-based beacon that broadcasts VHF radio signals in every direction, enabling an aircraft with a VOR receiver to pinpoint its azimuth—the angle relative to the beacon, measured in degrees from magnetic north. Paired with the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), which calculates the aircraft’s distance from the VOR, these tools nail down the plane’s exact position. These systems are doubled up, ensuring both pilot and co-pilot have their own independent setups.
For precision instrument landings, the ILS (Instrument Landing System) comes into play, using two radio beams: the “localizer” to keep the aircraft perfectly aligned with the runway, and the “glidepath” to guide its descent at just the right angle. These instruments are redundant and often seamlessly integrated with VOR instruments.
Still, Le Figaro doubles down on its wild, misleading narrative.
Airports don’t provide “GPS navigation services”—GPS data comes straight from a constellation of satellites. An aircraft’s GPS receiver grabs the signal directly, no airport system required, even for GPS approaches when available.
That’s the beauty of it: GPS eliminates the need for pricey ILS systems, letting smaller airports offer instrument approaches to boost traffic. But there’s a catch—GPS approaches have much higher “minima” than ILS. Pilots must take over manually at higher altitude, meaning they need clearer weather compared to the precision of ILS that enables landing with no visibility at all.
If von der Leyen’s pilots were forced to pull out “analog charts”—those trusty old paper aeronautical maps—it’s a sign something went wrong with the plane’s systems, likely the electrical ones. Or a failure of the Multifunction Flight Display. That’s an aircraft issue, not the airport’s. Backup instruments with their own batteries can keep the plane flying smoothly for hours, allowing a safe VFR landing. And Control is here to guide.
GPS jamming? That’s used for thwarting cruise missiles or low-flying drones, blanketing an entire area, affecting every aircraft in range. The idea that Russia would bother jamming GPS in Bulgaria is laughable—especially over someone like Ursula von der Leyen, who, let’s be honest, is barely a blip on the radar for the U.S., China, India, and the rest of the world.
Once again, Le Figaro delivers a masterclass in shoddy journalism, regurgitating a blatant disinformation ploy without a shred of scrutiny.