Passenger Plane Routing Crisis in the Middle East; Deliberate disruption coming from Iran-Iraq border
In late September, reports from multiple commercial flight pilots "Unthinkable" GPS attacks and navigation disruptions in the Middle East skies.
Forbes, citing the flight data intelligence crowdsourcing website "OPSGROUP," issued a warning about intricate navigation failures caused by fake GPS signals, significantly disrupting passenger flight navigation systems in the border skies between Iran and Iraq.
A recent Vice report speculates that the Islamic Republic may be responsible for the spoofing attacks, although no information has emerged about the entities accountable for the incident. Some diverted planes inadvertently entered Iranian airspace without clearance, posing a safety risk to passengers beyond the technical issues.
The substantial threat has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S. to release a warning memorandum outlining the safety hazards for civilian aircraft operating in the specified area.
OPSGroup has documented over 50 such attacks in recent weeks, elucidating that, "In the worst cases, the impact has been severe: complete loss of on-board navigation requiring air traffic control (ATC) vectors, inertial reference system (IRS) failure, and unnoticed off-track navigation towards danger areas and hostile airspace."
Evidence indicates that these disruptions come in three different types and are progressively increasing in complexity over time.
The aviation sector has not identified a dependable solution to address this issue.
Currently, flight crews operating in regions experiencing such disruptions must depend on the directions provided by air traffic control centers, which is not a sustainable solution, especially along heavily traveled flight routes.
