MADRID (Reuters) -A Spanish military jet with Defence Minister Margarita Robles onboard suffered a GPS “disturbance” on Wednesday morning while flying near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave on its way to Lithuania, the ministry said, without providing further details.
As well as Robles, the plane was carrying relatives of Spanish airmen forming part of the new NATO air defence mission on its eastern flank launched earlier this month after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace.
The Spanish contingent, known as the Vilkas mission meaning wolf in Lithuanian, last week intercepted eight Russian aircraft operating over the Baltic Sea, Spain’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Robles was due to have a bilateral meeting with her Lithuanian counterpart Dovile Sakaliene during a visit to the Siauliai airbase on Wednesday morning, according to the Spanish government’s agenda.
The incident follows another in which the GPS system of a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was jammed while en route to Bulgaria on Aug.31.
An EU spokesman said Bulgarian authorities suspected the incident was due to interference by Russia.
Estonia and neighbouring Finland have also previously blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace. Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks.
Most modern airliners have a variety of sensors and sources to determine their positioning, in addition to GPS, meaning they can fly if there is interference.
A commander onboard the Spanish plane told reporters travelling with Robles that such incidents are common when flying near Kaliningrad, both for civil and military aircraft, and the Spanish plane could also navigate using military satellites.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Emma Pinedo, writing by Charlie Devereux, editing by Aislinn Laing)
