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UA 1322 San Fran to D.C. – “We’ve got interference with GPS…”

January 26, 2025

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Written by Editor

Image: GPSJam.org

What’s new: The guy who writes all the time about GPS interference got to experience it, in a small way. 

Why it is important: The interference seems like it has been on-going for several days but the FAA has not issued a NOTAM about it. That is a problem. I filed a report with the FAA.

What else to know:

  • I was coming home from a two day DARPA workshop (where i spoke about, guess what) and tried to use the aircraft WiFi. I was unsuccessful and shortly thereafter one of the pilots announced the WiFi wasn’t working. About 30 minutes later the pilot explained that they had experienced GPS interference and one of their two GPS receivers was not working and could not be reset. That receiver was the one that supported the WiFi system.
  • GPSJam.org shows some apparent GPS interference in San Francisco for the day prior and the day of the flight. It appears to be centered to the north of the airport, just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge. That could be an artifact of airplane departure routes, though, and where their ADS-B starts reporting lower navigation integrity.
  • The FAA has not issued any NOTAMs that we can find about the disruption.
  • I am pretty sure the problem started right after takeoff and was because of the disruption near San Fran.
  • It is also possible the trouble came from us flying just south of an area in northern Nevada and southern Idaho that was NOTAMed as known GPS disruption. The NOTAM didn’t say why, so we assume it is a military exercise or test.

 

Approximate flight path of UA 1322

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