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Baltic ministers have warned that GPS jamming blamed on Russia risks causing an air disaster after the interference with navigation signals forced two Finnish flights to turn around mid-journey.
The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all warned separately at the weekend of the dangers of GPS jamming across the Baltic Sea region, which has increased in recent weeks.
On Thursday and Friday, two Finnair flights from Helsinki to the Estonian city of Tartu were forced by the GPS jamming to turn around and return to Finland as they were unable to navigate safely to their planned destination.
“If someone turns off your headlights while you’re driving at night, it gets dangerous. Things in the Baltic region near Russian borders are now getting too dangerous to ignore,” Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, told the Financial Times.
Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister, added: “We consider what is happening with GPS as part of Russia’s hostile activities, and we will definitely discuss it with our allies.
“Such actions are a hybrid attack and are a threat to our people and security, and we will not tolerate them.”
Tens of thousands of civilian flights have been affected by the GPS jamming in recent months, according to experts. The jamming, which affects all GPS users in the area when it is in operation, has also impeded signals used by boats in the Baltic Sea, leading to warnings from the Swedish navy about the safety of shipping.
GPS jamming is easy to conduct with relatively cheap equipment, according to experts.
No country has acknowledged being behind the interference with signals in the Baltics, but officials in the region said there was little doubt that Russia was behind the jamming both from its mainland and its exclave of Kaliningrad, nestled between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
A senior official said one theory was that Russia was trying to protect Kaliningrad from potential attacks by Ukrainian drones.
The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.
The UK confirmed in March that a government plane carrying defence secretary Grant Shapps had its GPS signal jammed near Kaliningrad while flying home from Poland.
Dana Goward, a GPS expert, said: “The chance of an accident is rising.” Goward, who is president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, an advocacy group for GPS users, added that while back-up systems were available, crews have had less training on these than on GPS: “When you take away GPS, aviation becomes less efficient and less safe.”
However, Juho Sinkkonen, head of flight operations at Finnair, who has 22 years’ experience as a pilot, said that GPS interference had been increasing since 2022 and was “a nuisance with no imminent safety impact”.
Most airports had equipment to allow planes to land without GPS, Sinkkonen added, but Tartu “is one of the few airports where the approach procedures require a GPS signal”.
Baiba Braže, Latvia’s foreign minister, said: “We take these incidents seriously. Our relevant institutions are in touch with colleagues in other countries.”
Experts say there are several different sources for the GPS jamming, with one seemingly based in Kaliningrad, another responsible for the disturbances in Estonia and Finland, and a separate source affecting the far north of Norway and Finland.
Baltic officials are discussing the GPS jamming with allies, and are urging Russia to stop putting civilian aircraft at risk.
Marko Mihkelson, head of the foreign affairs committee of Estonia’s parliament, said: “Allies should not look indifferently at Russia’s jamming of the GPS signal and thereby endangering international air traffic.”
Additional reporting by Max Seddon
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