An RAF plane carrying UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps had its GPS signal jammed while flying close to Russian territory.
The flight was en route to the UK from Poland when the satellite signal used to determine the location was temporarily disrupted.
It happened on Wednesday near Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic. A security source told the BBC it was not uncommon for airspace disruptions to occur near the region. They said the plane’s safety was not compromised during the incident.
Cell phones were unable to connect to the Internet during the outage, the Times reported.
Journalists accompanying Mr. Shapps on his visit to Poland, where he discussed support for Ukraine with his Polish counterpart, were on the plane at the time.
A Western official told the BBC that Kaliningrad “has a significant type of electronic warfare capability” and that “it wouldn’t be surprising, unfortunately, if the plane somehow breaks down in that”.
A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that the plane experienced GPS jamming when it was flying near Kaliningrad.
“It did not threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory,” the statement said.
