Israel's 'GPS spoofing' tricks missiles, but also commercial planes
BEIRUT - It was the last minute of the flight, just before touchdown at Beirut's international airport, when the Airbus 320's ground proximity warning — the system that warns pilots if their aircraft is about to hit a mountain or other obstacle — squawked, "Terrain! Pull up! Pull up!". Fadi Ramadan, the 37-year-old pilot, fell back on the emergency protocol drilled into him every six months for the last 15 years of his flying career, Nabih Bulos writes for the Los Angeles Times. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
17 July 2024 - Ramadan and other pilots flying over Lebanon that day were victims of "GPS spoofing," which sends fake GPS signals, confusing receivers about their actual location. This spoofing has affected areas in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and Cyprus, becoming a common occurrence in the Middle East. For instance, in a recent 72-hour period, nearly 2,000 spoofed planes were detected by SkAI Data Services using OpenSky Network data. Unlike GPS jamming, which just disrupts signals, spoofing deceives receivers about their location.
In March, Lebanon's foreign ministry filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council, accusing Israel of "reckless" signal disruptions since the start of the Gaza war, calling it an attack on Lebanon's sovereignty with "dangerous consequences for civil aviation and thousands of civilian passengers."
Aviation experts are particularly concerned about the impact on air traffic. Pilots are advised to turn off the plane's GPS receiver and use alternative navigation methods. However, the spoofing has been so strong that it can even affect a plane's inertial reference systems, corrupting onboard position calculations and forcing pilots to rely on air traffic control for assistance, potentially overwhelming controllers.
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Related: FAA tells pilots to go analogue as GNSS 'spoofing' incidents increase
Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
