NSA starts probe into GPS spoofing at IGI airport

NEW DELHI: The office of National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval has launched a probe into the unprecedented GPS spoofing IGI Airport has been facing for the past few weeks. NSA is learnt to be coordinating with multiple aviation and defence agencies on this issue as spoofing has been usually common in conflict zones.

Due to this phenomenon, planes coming to land often get wrong location or heading signals and false terrain warnings about 60 nautical miles from the airport.

This is the first time that the Delhi airport has been facing this issue. The 'automatic terminal information service' for IGIA has been regularly issuing alerts about spoofing and the airlines have been accordingly informing their pilots.

While security agencies are tackling the source of this interference, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai on Monday cleared the promulgation of category-1 (CAT-I) instrument landing system (ILS) at IGIA's warhorse runway 10/28's 10 on the Dwarka side. Now, Airports Authority of India is likely to issue a notice to airmen by Tuesday.

DGCA expedited this process from the original date of Nov 27 due to the spoofing. This will help an aircraft land from the Dwarka side on the main runway (10/28) when easterlies are blowing even if GPS spoofing is taking place.

Without ILS, aircraft can land using 'required navigation performance', but it requires GPS and spoofing had affected flight movement on the main runway a few times in the recent past. The inability to land on runway 10 end had led to congestion at India's busiest airport, which now handles about 1,550 daily flights and some flights had to divert to alternate airports like Jaipur.

Delhi International Airport Ltd has warned that "some flight schedules may be impacted" on Tuesday as "mandatory flight calibration of ILS will take place between 11.30am and 1.30pm as part of continuous safety practices". Flights will be "regulated during this period". Accordingly, DIAL has advised passengers to "coordinate with airlines to get updated flight information status".

All the runways at IGIA are scheduled for calibration every six months. On Tuesday, sources say, the ILS of runway 29 left (29L), which is closest to the Gurgaon side and used for arrivals, is due for calibration.

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