The plane went blind. Not figuratively. Not a glitch in the narrative. Ursula von der Leyen’s Dassault Falcon 900LX circled over Bulgaria for an hour, stripped of GPS, stripped of certainty.
“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” said EU spokesperson Arianna Podestà. “We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.” source
The President of the European Commission relied on analog instincts while Brussels funds green tech and digital summits. The signal vanished. The illusion of control vanished with it.
Bulgaria will not investigate.
“Because this kind of GPS jamming is now so common,” officials said. source
Common. Routine. Normalized sabotage dressed as realism. The rot is not in the wires. The rot is in the will.
Poland logged 2,732 cases of interference in January 2025. Lithuania recorded 1,185.
“Not random incidents but a systemic, deliberate action by Russia and Belarus,” according to an EU document. source
These are not glitches. They are fingerprints. Europe wipes the glass while leaving the door unlocked. The numbers scream. Brussels whispers.
“Jamming and spoofing harms our air, maritime & transport economies,” tweeted EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. His solution? “More satellites in low Earth orbit.” source
Launch toys while pilots navigate with compasses. The response is orbital. Never immediate. Never serious. Never grounded.
In 2024, Russia jammed the signal of an RAF jet carrying UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps for half an hour. That was “wildly irresponsible.”
This year’s GPS blackout? Labeled “urgent.” Next year? Routine. source The language softens. The threat hardens. Europe’s vocabulary retreats while the enemy advances. Brussels drafts statements while the sky burns.
Meanwhile, NATO allies like Finland and Poland invest in anti-jamming systems and encrypted navigation, funded by defense bills, not EU slush funds. source
The scandal is not the threat. The scandal is Brussels. Cash flows to pet projects while pilots trace routes on paper. The center is hollow. The edges bleed. The sky is no longer safe.