In northeastern Norway, from the ground, the area may appear as typical fjord country, characterized by neatly arranged red houses and winter snowmobile tours. However, for pilots flying overhead, it poses a significant risk due to GPS jamming. In Finnmark, this jamming is so prevalent that Norwegian authorities recently decided to cease logging the incidents, acknowledging these disruptions as a new norm.
Nicolai Gerrard, a senior engineer at Norway’s communications authority NKOM, stated that the organization no longer tracks jamming occurrences. He remarked that it has regrettably become an unwanted but persistent situation, leading the Norwegian airport authority to lose interest in continual updates on these frequent disruptions.
Pilots are required to adjust, typically encountering jamming above 6,000 feet. Odd Thomassen, a captain and senior safety adviser at the Norwegian airline Widerøe, noted that these occurrences are almost daily, with each episode lasting between six to eight minutes.
During jamming events, cockpit computers issue warnings, and the GPS systems designed to alert pilots of potential terrain collisions temporarily cease functioning. Pilots can still navigate without GPS through communication with nearby ground stations, according to Thomassen. However, this leaves them with a disconcerting experience of flying without contemporary technological support, as if reverting 30 years back in time, he explained.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there has been a marked increase in jamming across Europe’s eastern borders, with Baltic countries’ authorities openly attributing this to Russia. In April, a Finnair aircraft attempting to land in Tartu, Estonia, had to turn back 15 minutes before landing due to an inability to secure an accurate GPS signal.
Over the last decade, GPS systems have gained such a reputation for reliability that many smaller and more remote airports have opted to rely entirely on them, foregoing the maintenance of costly ground-based equipment. This trend was highlighted by Andy Spencer, a pilot and international flight operations specialist at OpsGroup, an organization for pilots and industry professionals.
