On September 1, European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed that the GPS system of the plane carrying her to Bulgaria suffered a GPS “jamming” perpetrated by Russia. Good weather and a paper map then helped the pilots to land safely. Financial Times gave the tone to mainstream media narrative: “Suspect Russian Cyberwarfare.”
However, tracking sites such as Flightradar24 examined the evidence and denied that there was any interference.
This allowed Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to have a good deal of fun at a September 4 press briefing. Zakharova said:
“I think you were all gasping as you watched the hysteria in the Western media because of the Ursula von der Leyen plane. Someone allegedly ‘highjacked’ Ursula’s aircraft signal, and the crew had to land using hard copy maps. I want to look into this issue in detail.
“I do not know what kind of a crop duster von der Leyen flies that she has to land using hard copy maps. However, I would like to see those maps; I wonder if they could publish them. I would like to see which color is Bulgaria on the maps Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft used.
