Image: GPSJam.org – Jamming in the Baltic the day of the minister’s flight
What’s new: The aircraft carrying another high ranking official experienced jamming in northern Europe.
Why it’s important:
- Even though jamming impacts tens of thousands of ordinary people on aircraft every day, if it happens to senior officials (or celebrities, we guess) it gets media attention. And media attention is important to raise awareness.
- It is important for senior leaders to experience things personally. Otherwise these kinds of problems can be just abstract.
What else to know:
- This happened to a previous UK Defence minister in 2024.
- It happened to the President of the European Union in 2025.
- It would have been more newsworthy if the plane had not experienced jamming.
- We find it interesting that media continue to say Russia “is suspected” or “is believed” to be responsible for the interference.
RAF jet carrying defence secretary has signal jammed near Russian border
Amy Walker
An RAF jet with the UK defence secretary on board had its signal jammed as it flew near the Russian border earlier this week.
John Healey was travelling back to the UK on Thursday after visiting British soldiers in Estonia when the incident happened, the Times first reported.
Russia is believed to be behind the attack, which meant pilots had to use a different navigation system as the plane’s GPS was disabled during the three-hour flight.
