Russia jams signal of RAF jet carrying UK's Defense Minister Healey after trip to Estonia - report

A Royal Air Force jet transporting British Defense Secretary John Healey had its navigation signal jammed as it flew near the Russian border last week, The Times reported. Healey was returning from a visit to British soldiers stationed in southeastern Estonia. The incident disabled the jet's GPS for the duration of the three-hour flight, forcing the pilots to rely on "revisionary inertial navigation systems" to determine their location, as restoring satellite signal mid-air was impossible without a full system reboot.

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One of the pilots described the matter to the Times as a rare incident that he hadn’t experienced “in a long time.”

The jamming caused parts of the cockpit's dashboard to malfunction. One pilot described the event as a rare occurrence not experienced in a long time. A defense source called the incident a "reckless" Russian action that could have endangered a civilian plane, though the RAF stated it is "well prepared to deal with this."

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reckless

This incident occurred just days after UK defense authorities revealed that Russian fighter jets had repeatedly conducted dangerous interceptions of RAF reconnaissance flights in international airspace. These interceptions, which included a Russian Su-35 fighter jet coming dangerously close and a Su-27 making six passes directly in front of the aircraft, were described by Healey as "dangerous and unacceptable." The British Defense Ministry noted this was the most serious interaction between Russian and British aircraft since 2022, when a Russian fighter released a missile near an RAF surveillance plane over the Black Sea.

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dangerous and unacceptable