The alleged GPS jamming of a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen by Russia raises concerns about air travel – but were there politics at play?

Jamming can overwhelm an aircraft’s GPS navigation systems, preventing them from working properly, leaving pilots to rely on other ways of finding out where they are.

The EU chief’s aircraft was reportedly forced to land at a Bulgarian airport using ‘paper maps’ – after circling for an hour on Sunday.

The EU said there was GPS jamming but the plane was able to land safely, adding: “We have received information from Bulgarian authorities that they suspect this blatant interference was carried out by Russia.”

But the timing of the allegation of GPS jamming – something reported to be routine along the Russian border – days before a crucial meeting of European leaders to discuss peacekeeping troops for Ukraine raises the question of why now?

Sky News has spoken to a pilot who was flying in the same area as Ms von der Leyen on Sunday, as well as a security expert with extensive knowledge of electronic warfare, to try and work out what happened.

What is GPS jamming?

GPS interference has become a known and widespread issue affecting aircraft over Europe in recent years, particularly since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022.

Experts generally point the finger at Russia, saying that Moscow uses GPS interference to defend against Ukrainian drones but maybe also to cause a nuisance for the West.

Jamming can overwhelm an aircraft’s GPS navigation systems, preventing them from working properly, leaving pilots to rely on other ways of finding out where they are.

Read more: How 1,500 flights a day are reportedly GPS jammed

What happened to Ursula von der Leyen?

According to the Financial Times, the ‘attack’ disabled GPS navigation services at Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria on Sunday afternoon.

The aircraft was deprived of electronic navigational aids as it approached, the newspaper said. It circled the airport for an hour before the pilot decided to manually land the plane, apparently using paper maps.

The area is near a known hotspot for GPS interference and blame was quickly levelled at Russia – a claim that Moscow denied. Russia has denied other instances of GPS jamming in the past.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said the alliance takes the jamming of GPS signals “very seriously” and is working “day and night” to prevent that jamming, to ensure “they will not do it again”.

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Pilot: Airport is in a known GPS interference area

Sean Fitzpatrick is an experienced pilot who regularly flies through areas known for GPS interference. Indeed, he flew within 40 miles of Plovdiv airport on the same day as Ms Von der Leyen.

He told Sky News: “That airport is in a known GPS interference area. Anyone flying in there would know that there’s a high probability of having GPS issues.”

While GPS jamming is a nuisance, pilots essentially turn off GPS receivers and rely on other aids like the instrument landing system, Sean said.

He added: “When I heard they were pulling out paper charts (to navigate) I’m like, why didn’t they just have an iPad?”

Given that GPS jamming of flights near the Russian border is reported to be routine, Sean was asked if the choice to reveal this particular alleged incident to the media – so close to the coalition of the willing summit this week – was political.

“Based on the information I have, that’s what it looks like… Based on what I’ve seen and the information that’s available to the public and what I know as a professional… I think there’s a bit of politics and sensationalism.”

‘We can make your life difficult’

Dr Thomas Withington, an expert on electronic warfare at the RUSI thinktank, agreed that there could be political angles to what happened.

“I think it’s quite hard to say with any degree of certainty whether her aircraft was deliberately targeted,” he told Sky News, noting that jamming signals are often sent out over a wide area. “But I’m sure that for Mr Putin it’s a very happy coincidence.”

He added: “Politically, what you’re saying is ‘we’re here, we can make your life difficult’.”

He also spoke about the wider impact of GPS jamming – and the possible dangers.

“I think it is important that the news went out there, because I think it indicates that Russia is an irresponsible actor, and these actions are grossly irresponsible, because you’re attempting to create a danger to international air travel, and there is simply no justification for that.”

He referenced the Azerbaijan Airlines flight in December, which was reportedly GPS jammed before it was mistakenly shot down by Russian air defences, killing 38 people.

“If those (Russian) actions cause loss of life, particularly in a NATO nation, I think it should be made very clear that a military response would be considered for that.”

French actor Gerard Depardieu has been summoned to face trial in Paris over allegations of rape and sexual assault against actress Charlotte Arnould.

“I feel relieved,” Ms Arnould wrote on Instagram after receiving the judge’s indictment order.

“The order restores a form of judicial truth. I think I’m having trouble realising how huge this is.”

Ms Arnould’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, told French outlet Franceinfo she was “extremely satisfied” and said the decision was a “moment of judicial truth in this case”.

In 2018, prosecutors in Paris opened a preliminary investigation after Ms Arnould accused Depardieu of raping her at his home. He has denied wrongdoing.

“The acts of rape and sexual assault have been acknowledged,” Ms Arnould said. “Now, we await the next steps.”

Last year, prosecutors submitted a request for the case to proceed to trial.

Earlier this year, Depardieu was convicted of sexually assaulting two women on a film set and received an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The 76-year-old was convicted of groping a 34-year-old assistant and a 54-year-old woman responsible for decorating the set during the filming of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in 2021.

The court ordered his name to be listed in the national sex offender database.

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Depardieu, one of the most prominent figures in French cinema for decades, told the court his career includes more than 250 films.

In 1991, he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.

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In recent years, Depardieu has been accused of misconduct, either publicly or in formal complaints, by more than 20 women.

So far, only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court, with other cases dropped over a lack of evidence or an expired statute of limitations.

Over 1,400 people have been killed and at least 3,250 others injured after an earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

The quake hit the country’s rugged northeastern province of Kunar, near the Pakistan border, at roughly midnight on Sunday, destroying several villages, officials said.

Rescuers were trying to reach isolated villages in the mountainous province where the quake hit, with the provincial head of disaster management, Ehsanullah Ehsan, saying: “We cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be trapped under the rubble. Our effort is to complete these operations as soon as possible and to begin distributing aid to the affected families.”

Here’s what we know so far.

Number of casualties high and area difficult to access, officials say

Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s ministry of public health, said: “Rescue operations are still underway there, and several villages have been completely destroyed.

“The figures for martyrs and injured are changing. Medical teams from Kunar, Nangarhar and the capital Kabul have arrived in the area.”

He said many areas have not been able to report casualty figures and “numbers were expected to change” as deaths and injuries are reported.

Thousands of children were at risk in the aftermath of the quake, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned on Tuesday.

UNICEF said it was sending medicines, warm clothing, tents and tarpaulins for shelter, as well as hygiene items such as soap, detergent, towels, sanitary pads and water buckets.

Taliban soldiers were also deployed to the area to provide help and security, the government said.

Rescue teams and authorities were trying to dispose of animal carcasses quickly to minimise the risk of contamination to water resources, a UN official said.

“Damaged roads, ongoing aftershocks, and remote locations of many villages severely impede the delivery of aid,” the World Health Organisation said. It added that over 12,000 people had been affected by the quake.

“The pre-earthquake fragility of the health system means local capacity is overwhelmed, creating total dependence on external actors,” it said.

According to earlier reports, 30 people were killed in a single village, the health ministry said.

“The number of casualties and injuries is high, but since the area is difficult to access, our teams are still on site,” said health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman.

The Afghan Red Crescent said its officials and medical teams “rushed to the affected areas and are currently providing emergency assistance to impacted families”.

The impact of aid cuts

Afghanistan has been badly affected by Donald Trump’s decision in January to cut funding to USAID and reduce funding for other foreign aid programmes.

The UK has allocated £1m to support the UN and the International Red Cross in delivering critical healthcare and emergency supplies to affected Afghans.

China has said it is ready to provide disaster relief, while India delivered 1,000 family tents to Kabul and was moving 15 tonnes of food supplies to Kunar.

An impoverished country where quakes are always a threat

John Sparks

International correspondent

@sparkomat

Earthquakes represent a constant danger in Afghanistan, a country that sits across three geological faultlines.

But the people of this impoverished nation are also vulnerable in a number of other ways.

Since the Taliban regained control in 2021, the international community has withdrawn much of the financial support, which formed the bulk of government spending in Afghanistan.

Even humanitarian aid, which generally bypasses government institutions, has shrunk substantially – from $3.8bn (£2.8bn) in 2022 to $767m (£566m) this year.

The US government, through its international development arm USAID, provided 45% of all assistance granted to Afghanistan last year, but those sums have been slashed by the Trump administration.

The UK, along with France, Germany, Sweden, and others, has also made deep cuts to humanitarian aid.

As a consequence, hundreds of hospitals and local health clinics in the country have been shut this year and related medical posts have been lost.

This funding crisis comes as the country tries to absorb millions of people who fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took power.

More than two million in fact, have come back this year, with Pakistan and Iran taking measures to force their return.

On arrival, they discover a country where more than half the population requires urgent humanitarian assistance, according to the UN, with millions suffering from acute food insecurity.

Large parts of northern Afghanistan are suffering a lengthy drought.

Destructive earthquakes are an unfortunate fact of life in the country.

This most recent rupture near the city of Jalalabad represents the third major quake in the past four years.

But the catastrophe is compounded in a nation that ranks as one of the poorest – and most desperate – on Earth.

What happened?

A 6.0 quake hit Kunar at around 11.47pm local time (8.17pm UK time) on Sunday.

The quake’s epicentre was near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, at a depth of just five miles (8km). Shallower quakes such as these tend to cause more damage.

Jalalabad is situated about 74 miles (119km) from Kabul. It is considered a remote and mountainous area.

A second earthquake struck in the same province about 20 minutes later, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 6.2 miles (10km). This was later followed by a 5.2 earthquake at the same depth.

Homes of mud and stone were levelled by the quake, with deaths and injuries reported in the districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi and Chapadare, according to the Kunar Disaster Management Authority.

The first quake hit 17 miles east-northeast of the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, the US Geological Survey said. Jalalabad is a bustling trade city due to its proximity to a key border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It has a population of around 300,000 people, according to the municipality, but its metropolitan area is believed to be much larger.

Most of its buildings are low-rise constructions predominantly made from concrete and brick, though its outer areas include homes built of mud bricks and wood.

Quake measures slightly lower than the country’s deadliest disaster

Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

The country is also one of the world’s poorest, having suffered decades of conflict, with poor infrastructure leaving it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake and strong aftershocks struck Afghanistan on 7 October 2023.

The country’s Taliban government said at least 4,000 people had been killed, but the United Nations said the number of people killed was around 1,500.

The 2023 earthquake is considered the deadliest natural disaster to hit Afghanistan in recent memory.

A series of other earthquakes in the country’s west killed more than 1,000 people last year.

Humanitarian officials and locals said many villages are still recovering and living in temporary structures after the previous disasters.

Disaster adds to ‘perfect storm of problems’ for Afghanistan

The earthquake is a “perfect storm” in a country that is already suffering a “multiplicity of crises,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has told Sky News.

Filippo Grandi said the situation in the country was “very tragic” and added: “We have very little information as of yet, but already, reports of hundreds of people killed and many more made homeless.”

Afghanistan already has finite resources, as it is one of the world’s poorest countries and is also war-torn, having been taken over by the Taliban in 2021 when foreign forces withdrew after years of fighting.

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The withdrawal triggered a cut to the international funding that formed the bulk of government finances in Afghanistan.

Humanitarian aid, aimed at bypassing political institutions to serve urgent needs, has shrunk to $767m (£567m) this year, down from $3.8bn (£2.08bn) in 2022, according to Reuters, yet the United Nations estimates more than half the population is in urgent need of aid.

Mr Grandi said Afghanistan is also suffering from a “big drought”, while Iran has “sent back almost 2 million people” and Pakistan “threatens to do the same”.

“It’s extremely difficult to mobilise resources because of the Taliban. So it’s a perfect storm,” he added. “And this earthquake, likely to have been quite devastating, is going to just add to the misery.”

He appealed to “all those who can help to please do that”.

Emergency relief hampered by lack of women’s rights, charity warns

Diplomats and aid officials say crises elsewhere in the world, along with donor frustration over the Taliban’s policies towards women, have spurred the cuts in funding.

Oxfam’s chief executive Halima Begum told Sky News: “Emergency relief in Afghanistan, either over the long term or even during this emergency, is a really difficult process because women’s rights are not upheld very well in this country.”

She said providing aid “presents a very difficult and complex challenge for us” and the charity had to pull out of the country “for reasons to do with operational difficulty”.

Oxfam is working through partner agencies such as the British Red Cross, “trying to figure out how best we can get support to what you can see are very difficult, mountainous regions”, she said.

She added: “All of the NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and charities will be getting together, figuring out who is present there.

“And of course, there’s an ongoing conversation and monitoring with the Disasters Emergency Committee to just see where the death toll goes and what that response level should be.”

“So far, no foreign governments have reached out to provide support for rescue or relief work,” a spokesperson of Afghanistan’s foreign office said.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the country was ready to provide disaster relief assistance “according to Afghanistan’s needs and within its capacity”.

In a post on X, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said its mission in Afghanistan was preparing to help those in areas devastated by the quake.