In the eastern Mediterranean, GPS jamming causes a stir in air traffic

At Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, July 22, 2014 (illustration image).

REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

It's a bit like the watered sprinkler, or Israel, the country that invented the Waze browser, which is losing its bearings.

The jamming of the GPS satellite navigation system is increasingly intense in the eastern Mediterranean basin.

So much so that it endangers civil aviation in this region of the world.

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

It's been three years since the GPS troubles started.

Initially, it was the Russian radars installed in Syria that were blamed.

But things got considerably worse.

In recent weeks, the entire eastern Mediterranean has suffered the consequences of GPS jamming: part of the Turkish coast, the Syrian, Lebanese, Israeli coast and also the island of Cyprus.

Diverted planes

Main victim: civil aviation.

On several occasions, airliner landings had to be redirected to less affected airports.

At this point, terrestrial geo-navigation systems such as those found in cars are little affected by the jamming.

anti drone

According to the European Aviation Safety Agency, quoted by the daily

, anti-drone systems are responsible.

A military spokesperson affirms on a daily basis that the Israeli army is working in several dimensions against various threats on all fronts.

But he is not the only actor in the region to act in the manner.

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