The crew of an El Al flight from Phuket, Thailand to Tel Aviv thwarted an attempt by hostile elements to hijack the aircraft’s communication network on Sunday.
El Al flight 88 was navigating through airspace with regular Houthi activity. Crewmembers received instructions to deviate significantly from their flight plan. They switched to alternative communication channels, and verified the integrity of their original flight path with other air traffic controllers.
Other flights have received similar spoofed air traffic control communications, and advisories have been issued instructing pilots to ignore spurious instructions and verify them through alternative channels. The flight would have been directed into an area of vulnerability, though it’s not clear whether the aircraft would have come under direct attack or been forced to land with uncertain outcomes for passengers and crew.
Attempted attack on the communications network of an Israeli flight from Phuket, Thailand
Hostile elements tried "to manipulate the crew, the pilots, into changing the trajectory and diverting the flight to what would have been a hostile area," @guyaz explains
With @benitalevin pic.twitter.com/kJhedqzwbJ
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) February 18, 2024
Relatedly, the FAA issued guidance for pilots on the increased risk of spoofing attacks where false navigational data disrupts aircraft navigation systems. Such incidents have been rising in frequency and threatens the reliability of GPS and global navigation satellite systems. Flight crew are instructed to monitor GPS/GNSS performance and utilize conventional navigational aids instead of digital satellite navigation systems in the event of anomalies.
(HT: @crucker)
Is this exclusive to El AL or have other regional airlines been targeted?
2 months until I’m on EK thru Dubai
Civilian versions of encryption and M-CODE that the US military use, would resolve this issue. You can view the current interference and levels at gpsjam.org.
I don’t know this in detail, but what we might have is an over reliance on one form of technology. Getting rid of other radio navigation aids, such as the old but pretty solid LORAN system, and depending mainly on GPS creates real problems if it go out. A major solar flare, or hacking in the system, would really degrade performance. Granted you do have an inertial navigation system on board, not to mention ground based radio beacons plus common sense and maps, but there are limits here too. (And its been a long time since anybody had to use an AM station’s reception, a sextant or the stars to navigate an aircraft.) Putting too many eggs in one basket is dangerous.
Kevin–That is a cool site. In December my cruise ship went by western Oman and the Internet went out because of widespread jamming in the area, presumably tied in to the Yemen war. Patti–I wouldn’t worry too much, while we were the next-to-last passenger ship to transit Suez and the Red Sea there were absolutely no problems flying on Emirates from Dubai to Miami (except for 16 hours on a plane). My guess is that Arab airlines are far less likely to be targeted than the Israeli one.
Just send the Marines already and eliminate the threat directly from its core. The US, UK, EU etc. should not let these embecils terrorised the world and its free trade. If they want war, they will get one..get rid of them quickly and quietly. Israel has shown how it is done.
Kevin, that is an interesting map of GPS interference. I wish it showed land and political boundaries.