Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (commonly known as IGI) faced massive disruptions on Wednesday when the flight operations witnessed GPS spoofing. The incidents triggered alerts across airlines and aviation authorities, which caused delays in landing and escalated the air traffic. The internal report stated that the spoofed signals aim at corrupting the navigation systems on aircraft, which further shows incorrect indications of their locations to pilots during landing.
This is the first such known case in Delhi which is related to GPS spoofing, which further leads to multiple domestic flight diversions, operational delays and an increase in caution among pilots who were entering the capital's airspace. But many of us are still unaware of this term, so let us give some in-depth information about the term, what it actually means in the aviation industry and how risky it is.
What is GPS spoofing?
GPS spoofing is a form of cyberattack where fake satellite signals are broadcast to confuse receivers, and in this case, aircraft navigation systems.
How does spoofing work?
- Cyber criminals and attackers broadcast fake GPS signals that appear to originate from real satellites.
- Aircraft receivers get those signals and get confused, which leads to wrong location, altitude, speed, and timing data. This could be life-threatening in aviation.
- It means that navigational information, which appears real to the pilots but is actually false, creates a lot of confusion in coordinating between land and air.
Where is GPS spoofing practised?
Spoofing is often reported in:
- Conflict zones like the Black Sea region
- West Asia and the Middle East
- Military action areas or electronic warfare zones
What makes Delhi's case unique is that these spoofing incidents rarely take place in civilian regions and peaceful zones.
How did spoofing disrupt flights at IGI Airport?
The GPS spoofing affected flights making their approach to Runway 10/28, one of the main runways, which is heavily used during winter in Delhi airport.
Exactly what went wrong at IGI Airport?
- Spoofed signals corrupted the Required Navigation Performance, a GPS-based landing system.
- Aircraft could not perform precision landings without accurate GPS signals.
- Several pilots reported wrong positional data during the approach.
- Airlines subsequently were advised to rely on ground-based navigation aids instead of GPS.
Operational impact
- Several flights of Air India and Vistara were diverted.
- Pilots approaching Delhi airspace were given repetitive ATIS warnings to be cautious.
- New landing procedures and visual approach protocols had to be utilised.
The congestion grew worse, especially when winds blew from the east, when some runways could not be used without GPS-based landing.
How did Delhi Airport respond?
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) confirmed the issue and immediately started corrective measures.
Key response steps:
- Cautionary messages are broadcast through the ATIS Airport Terminal Information System.
- Airlines were instructed to temporarily avoid RNP-based landings.
- Acceleration of the new ILS to Runway 10/28 was approved.
- The new system, according to officials, is expected to start operating by November 27.
- IndiGo even conducted a trial flight to validate the new approach lighting and landing system.
Why GPS Spoofing is dangerous?
GPS Spoofing could create serious aviation risks like:
- Aircraft may believe that they are off-course and make abrupt corrections. Incorrect altitude information endangers the approach and landing.
- Navigation and timing errors may occur, impacting autopilot, collision avoidance systems, and airport coordination.
- In extreme cases, GPS Spoofing could lead to loss of control when pilots are relying on GPS alone.
Fortunately, Indian pilots are trained to shift to ground-based aids like ILS, VOR, and visual approaches whenever GPS appears unreliable.
Why did spoofing happen near Delhi?
Experts believe that the spoofing signals likely drifted from conflict zones in West Asia, where electronic warfare systems are jamming GPS signals in order to protect military assets. Strong atmospheric conditions can carry such corrupted signals as far as 2,500 km. Similar to past incidents, Spoofing in Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine disrupted the flights of civilians travelling thousands of kilometres away.
The incident is being investigated
The incident is being investigated by Indian aviation regulators and the DGCA, who are likely to enhance monitoring of satellite-based navigation signals, brief pilots about spoofing risks, expedite upgrades of landing systems at IGIA, and coordinate prevention measures with international aviation organisations.
The incident highlights how spillover from electronic warfare can affect civilian aviation even in regions that are not in conflict.
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