There is a big news for those traveling by plane. An attempt has been made to interfere with the GPS signals of planes near Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI). This has been confirmed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation itself in Parliament on Monday.
On the first day of the Winter Session of Parliament, while answering a question in the Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that in the last one year, there have been many major airports in the country including Delhi. ‘GPS Spoofing’ Incidents have come to light.
Let us understand in simple language what is this matter and is there any threat to the safety of passengers?
What actually happened at Delhi airport?
The minister said that Delhi Airport runway 10 But many flights preparing to land faced problems.
When these flights were using Satellite Guided System (GPS) to find their way, they ‘GPS Spoofing’ Had to face.
What is spoofing? In simple words, spoofing means sending ‘false signals’ to the aircraft’s navigation system or confusing it.
Due to this, the pilots had to immediately leave the satellite system and use other procedures for landing.
However, the flights which were using other runways and were operating on ground-based navigation system did not face any problem.
Not only Delhi, these cities are also affected
The government said that in November 2023, DGCA had made it mandatory to report such cases. Since then such news is coming from many big cities of the country. These include:
Kolkata
Amritsar
Mumbai
Hyderabad
Bengaluru
Chennai
Do travelers need to be afraid? (‘Desi’ security system)
Even though this technology may sound scary, it is a matter of relief that Air travel is completely safe. The ministry said that India is not dependent only on GPS.
Old method became a boon: India has a strong backup system of ‘Ground-Based Navigation’ (MON – Minimum Operating Network). This is an old method that sends signals from the ground.
This old system works with perfect accuracy whenever satellite or GPS signals in the sky are jammed or interfered with. This is why despite the recent incidents all the flights remained safe.
Government tightened rules
DGCA has geared up to further strengthen security:
New SOP issued: A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been issued on November 10, 2025.
Instant Reporting: Now pilots and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) have been instructed that if they notice even the slightest error in GPS, they will have to report it in ‘real-time’ (immediately).
