On Wednesday, the Israel Airports Authority (IAA) confirmed reports that “many” pilots had been losing their Global Positioning System (GPS) signals mid-air, and that the problem has been occurring for weeks.
Israeli aviation authorities are at a loss to explain multiple instances of pilots losing their connection to global positioning satellites around Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
The IAA noted that the issue seemed to only affect airplanes in-flight near the airport, and that ground systems had been totally unaffected.
Although airplanes are not completely reliant on GPS systems, under certain-conditions like a low-visibility landing they can be a crucial safety tool. Despite such concerns, the IAA assured that “at no stage has there been a safety incident stemming from the GPS disruption in the context of the precision of navigation and flight corridors.”
That said, the IAA noted that it still has no idea what is causing the disruptions. The Israeli Defense Ministry said that it has not yet gotten involved in the situation, calling it an IAA matter for the time being.
