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Commercial aircraft flying in the Middle East and northern Europe have been caught up in a spate of GPS spoofing incidents, which have thrown onboard navigation systems off course and pose an increasing risk to air travel the world over, according to international aviation bodies and experts.

Commercial aircraft flying in the Middle East and northern Europe have been caught up in a spate of GPS spoofing incidents, which have thrown onboard navigation systems off course and pose an increasing risk to air travel the world over, according to international aviation bodies and experts.

In late August of last year, pilots operating in the Middle East began to report instances of their onboard navigation systems being overtaken by fake GPS signals, sometimes showing them to be hundreds of miles off course. This resulted in a “complete loss of navigational capability,” which in some instances forced crews to rely on verbal directions from air traffic controllers, according to OpsGroup, a membership organization for pilots and flight dispatchers. Aircraft of all sizes have been affected, including small business jets and large Boeing 777s.

The first reported incidents took place in a strip of Iraqi airspace close to the country’s border with Iran that is commonly used by flights traveling between Europe and the Gulf states. The pilot of a business jet traveling to Dubai reported that the plane almost flew into Iranian airspace, without authorization, due to the loss of its navigation system, according to OpsGroup.

“It’s not an idle problem. This could lead to real international incidents,” said Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

The jamming of GPS signals is a relatively common phenomenon, particularly around war zones and sensitive military sites, where the practice is used to deflect potential drone or missile strikes. Pilots are alert to regional hot spots where such instances might occur and are able to fall back on other onboard navigation aids.

In spoofing incidents, however, false signals are broadcast that cause an aircraft’s electronic equipment to calculate incorrect positions and provide erroneous guidance—essentially tricking the aircraft’s GPS receiver into thinking it is somewhere it is not.

Experts say spoofing is potentially more dangerous than jamming, as pilots may not even initially be aware of what is going on, and false signals can “infect” the plane’s inertial reference system (IRS)—its navigational nerve center.

“Since August 2023, a new variety of GPS spoofing is being reported by crews, where the signal is sufficiently strong and of sufficient integrity to feed the aircraft systems,” according to a discussion paper from a February meeting of the........

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