A plane from the UK could not land in Vilnius on Thursday night over navigation glitches. Lithuania has been experiencing a lot of GPS communication problems recently, according to a navigation official.
A Ryanair passenger plane from London was due to land in Vilnius on Thursday evening, but turned around and flew to Warsaw. After a forced stopover in the Polish capital, it returned and landed successfully at Vilnius Airport at 23:47.
Lithuania has been experiencing a lot of GPS communication glitches lately, says Tomas Montvila, head of the Operational Department of the company Oro navigacija.
“In the last quarter of the year, there have been a lot of them,” Tomas Montvila, head of the Operational Department of the company Oro Navigacija (Air Navigation), told LRT RADIO on Friday.
He confirmed that the Ryanair passenger plane which was due to land in Vilnius on Thursday evening had to be rerouted to Warsaw due to communication problems.
“According to our data, the aircraft was experiencing GPS interference and during the landing the so-called avionics warning system was triggered that the aircraft might collide with the ground, and they decided to fly to the alternate airport in Warsaw. There they checked their avionics systems and returned to Vilnius,” said Montvila.
He said that GPS interference can occur for various reasons, including purposeful actions of foreign governments.
“There can be many reasons. There are unfriendly countries and other things,” he said.
According to Lukas Paškevičius, adviser to the transport minister, all other planes took off and landed safely at all airports in the country both on Thursday evening and Friday morning.
Investigation
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said further action would depend on the conclusions of an investigation into the incident.
“We spoke about this and we will continue speaking about this. We have a lot of different information, but we should not jump to conclusions without having any final results and until the investigation is completed,” the minister told reporters after a meeting of the State Defence Council consisting of top government and military leaders.
“Our further action, joint international action, will depend on the final conclusions,” she added.
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