Government says GPS spoofing hit hundreds of flights: What is it and how it impacted several major airports

The central government has confirmed that the technical glitch that impacted several major Indian airports, including in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, last month were due to GPS spoofing.

According to civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu, despite the cyber attack, flight operations were not affected due to the use of conventional backup navigation systems. While speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Naidu said signals were spotted near runway 10.

Delhi airport flight delay: Minister explains what went wrong

In his reply to MP Niranjan Reddy, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu stated that spoofing signals were detected near the Delhi airport during GPS-based landing procedures on runway 10.“Some flights reported GPS spoofing in the vicinity of IGIA, New Delhi while using GPS-based landing procedures, while approaching on RWY 10,” Naidu told the House, confirming that “Contingency procedures were used for GPS spoofed flights approaching to RWY 10.”The minister also stressed that even though the spoofing was detected, flights continued safely without disruption because conventional, non-GPS-based navigation systems were active.

The Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO) has been deployed to trace the source of the interference.The Minister also noted that similar interference reports surfaced from other major aviation hubs, including airports in Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, underscoring a wide-reaching issue. The minister’s clarification comes weeks after recent concerns over navigation interference, particularly at the country's busiest hub, Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the capital.

What is GPS Spoofing

GPS spoofing is a type of cyberattack that causes digital interference in signals. The technique involves feeding an aircraft false but realistic navigation data. Spoofing aims to distort what pilots see on their navigation systems, potentially misleading the aircraft regarding its position, speed or altitude. This is different from jamming, which essentially blocks a signal.In a separate incident, a technical scare at Delhi airport weeks earlier also resulted in flight disruption, which was traced to a technical issue within the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS). This tech is responsible for sending critical flight plan data to the Auto Track System (ATS).