When two Finnair planes flying into Estonia recently had to divert in quick succession and return to Helsinki, the cause wasn’t a mechanical failure or inclement weather—it was GPS denial.
GPS denial is the deliberate interference of the navigation signals used and relied on by commercial aircraft. It’s not a new phenomenon: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has long provided maps of regions where GPS was routinely unavailable or untrusted. However, concern is growing rapidly as conflict spreads across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and GPS jamming and spoofing become weapons of economic and strategic influence.
