image: FlightRadar24
It’s Complicated
What’s new:
- Reports based on ADS-B seem to contradict official statements and press reports about the EU leader’s flight into Bulgaria Sunday, Data from FlightRadar24 shows a good GPS signal and a close to on-time arrival.
- BUT According to Benoit Figuet at GPSWise the same aircraft did report losing GPS the day before over the Baltics. – We wonder if the Bulgaria report was some government publicist trying to play “catchup.”
- For the Bulgaria leg, It is possible that some GPS receivers or functions on the aircraft were impacted but ADS-B was not. The report of the nav problem and good transponder signal could both be true.
- We hope for clarifying info from the EU/EC.
Why its important: Complicated tech situations are difficult to communicate and can confuse most policy makers, press, and the public, reducing perceived credibility.
- There is a real chance of creating a “boy who cried wolf” scenario. Wolves were a real danger. But his false alarms bred complacency and he was eventually eaten.
What else to know:
- Even when we stay as close to the facts as possible, it is difficult to not come across as “crying wolf.“
- There are so many indicators of trouble, so many warnings that we should heed... yet without a cathartic event the indicators and warnings become normalized.
- 38 people dying in a plane crash because of GPS jamming should have been a wake-up call, the cathartic event. It seems that incident was too easy to write off as an accident, and/or “over there/not us.”
