Von Der Leyen's Plane Landed In Bulgaria Using Paper Maps

• 1.09.2025, 13:59

The incident is being treated as an operation of Russian interference.

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at the airport in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv using paper maps due to GPS malfunctions.

This is reported by Financial Times.

The publication said the plane carrying the EC president was left without electronic navigation aids during its approach to the city's airport. According to three informed officials, the incident is being treated as a Russian interference operation.

"GPS in the entire airport area stopped working," one of the officials said.

After an hour of circling over the airport, the plane's pilot decided to land manually using paper maps, they added.

"It was undeniable interference," one of the sources added.

Bulgarian air traffic control confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times.

"Since February 2022, there has been a significant increase in cases of (GPS) jamming and, more recently, signal tampering," the statement said.