The plane of the head of the EU chief von der Leyen struck by alleged Russian GPS interference

The navigation system of a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted due to alleged Russian interference, the European Commission said.

A spokesperson said that the “scrambling of the GPS” had occurred while the president of the commission was about to arrive in Bulgaria on Sunday, but she still landed safely.

They added: “We received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to a blatant interference from Russia.”

The Financial Times, citing anonymous officials, said that Von Der Leyen was to land at Plovdiv airport using paper cards.

The Bulgarian government has confirmed that during the flight, “the satellite signal transmits information to the plane GPS navigation system was neutralized”.

The press release continued: “To ensure flight security, air control services immediately offered an alternative landing method using land navigation tools.”

The authority of the Bulgarian air traffic services told the newspaper that there had been a “notable increase” of the scrambling of navigation since January 2022.

The Kremlin told the FT that its information was “incorrect”.