A Royal Air Force Dassault Falcon 900LX carrying U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey had its GPS signals jammed for the duration of a three-hour flight returning from Estonia on May 21, in what a U.K. defense source quoted by British media described as “reckless Russian interference.”
The aircraft, an Envoy IV CC.1 operated by Centreline AV on behalf of the RAF’s 32 (The Royal) Squadron, was transiting Baltic airspace on its way back to the United Kingdom after Healey visited British troops deployed as part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence.
According to The Times, GPS reception was disabled for the entire return flight, smartphones and laptops on board could not connect to the internet, and pilots reverted to alternative navigation systems. The aircraft was assessed as safe to continue, and passengers — who included photographers and at least one reporter — were briefed on the situation in flight.
It is unclear whether the Falcon 900LX was specifically targeted. The flight path was reportedly visible on public aircraft tracking websites at the time. The Envoy IV CC.1 is not fitted with military-standard electronic protection; when the U.K. ordered the two Falcon 900LX jets in 2021, the government opted against the most extensive defensive aids package available.
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That decision drew criticism after a March 2024 episode in which then-Defense Secretary Grant Shapps’s RAF flight returning from Poland was jammed for around 30 minutes near Kaliningrad.
The Baltic Sea and the Kaliningrad exclave remain one of four European hotspots identified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for sustained GNSS interference, alongside eastern Finland, the Black Sea, and the eastern Mediterranean. On August 31, 2025, another Falcon 900LX carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen experienced GPS interference on approach to Plovdiv, Bulgaria; on September 24, 2025, a Spanish Air and Space Force A330 MRTT carrying Defense Minister Margarita Robles reported GPS disruption near Kaliningrad.
The International Civil Aviation Organization formally condemned Russia and North Korea over GNSS interference in October 2025.
The jamming incident follows the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s disclosure of an April 2026 episode in which an RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint operating over the Black Sea was dangerously intercepted by Russian Su-35 and Su-27 fighters, with one Russian aircraft passing within six meters of the British plane’s nose and triggering its onboard emergency systems.
The ministry described that event as the most dangerous Russian action against a U.K. Rivet Joint since September 2022, when a Su-27 released a missile in the vicinity of an RC-135W over the same body of water.
