We have never claimed that the case of the plane of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen over Plovdiv was about targeted actions. This was stated by an EC spokesman at a press conference in response to questions. He added that the commission has never claimed how late the plane was until it landed, BTA reported.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case, there have been numerous reports of GPS signal jamming, especially on the eastern borders of the EU, after the start of the Russian military attack on Ukraine. This affects the movement of planes and ships, so we are looking for a pan-European solution, the spokesman explained.
The Bulgarian authorities themselves assess what to do in this case, he said. I think the EC is not in a position to investigate on its own, the spokesperson said.
I can confirm that there was interference with the GPS signal before Von der Leyen's landing in Plovdiv. The most important thing is that the plane landed safely. The Bulgarian Air Traffic Management confirmed the interference in the signal, the spokesperson said, recalling quotes from the Council of Ministers' statement on the matter.
The spokesperson did not confirm the reports by the "Financial Times" newspaper that the plane "circled for an hour" over Plovdiv before landing, and that the pilots were using "paper navigation maps". The EC has never stated what the flight delay was, the spokesperson said.