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'GPS spoofing' threatens flights over airspace in war-torn West Asia

The electronic spoofing signals not only lead to misreading of location but also faking of other vital parameters like distances and altitude etc by confusing the computer system with unpredictable consequences. Because all cockpit equipments are integrated.

Tailpiece: Could this have been the cause of some recent crashes in the Indian subcontinent! Spoofing altitude reading while flying over valleys and hills? (ALSO see: What caused Ethiopian air crash)

NEW DELHI, Nov 26: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has warned that civilian flights over war-torn West Asia can be risky with recent reports of 'GPS spoofing' disrupting navigation. The DGCA has issued an advisory to all Indian airlines to be alert.

"The aviation industry is grappling with uncertainties due to new threats and reports of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) jamming and spoofing," the DGCA circular said.

The latest incident was reported near Ankara, Turkey, on November 20. The navigation system showed that the aircraft was in Beirut. Since nobody has been found manipulating the GPS it is likely due to the military electronic warfare systems active in West Asia. In case one strays into Iran airspace it runs the risk of getting shot down.

The problem is like a driver blindfolded! With modern aircraft totally depenedant on electronic instrumentation, if signals are faulty we don't know where we are flying. This ‘GPS spoofing’ is threatening flights across West Asia, a perennial war zone. And the region has the busiest air traffic between East and the West like the Suez canal for shipping.

In the last few weeks, there were about 50 incidents being reported from near Baghdad, Cairo and Tel Aviv. One aircraft was about to stray into Iranian air space.

In conflict zones aircraft risk terrorist attacks by spoofing.

The electronic spoofing signals not only led to misreading of location but also other vital parameters leading to unpredictable consequences. Because all cockpit equipments are integrated. Could this have been the cause of some recent crashes in the Indian subcontinent! Spoofing altitude reading while flying over valleys and hills?

Recent incidents of ‘GPS spoofing’

Misleading electronic signals imitating the GPS signals led to total failure of navigation for 12 flights near Iran in September, according to data. “A troubling new development in en route airspace is emerging: Aircraft are being targeted with fake GPS signals, quickly leading to complete loss of navigational capability,” according to OpsGroup.

According to another report, GPS spoofing misguided around 20 planes near Iran-Iraq border. The planes included Boeing 777, 737 and 747. The aircraft’s navigation system went awry, the planes losing their navigational capability. The manipulation was called ‘GPS spoofing.’ It means a satellite signal is replaced by a malicious intervention possibly from ground by third party such that the GPS receiver shows a wrong position and time leading to disasters. On the other hand, in 'jamming', GPS signals are jammed, which is not as threatening as spoofing and happens once in a while.

Airway UM688 in Iraqi airspace was found to be particularly risky.

Iranian Defence Ministry had disclosed a couple of years ago that Iran has an electronic warfare system that is exclusive. It also has electronic warfare aircraft.

In one incident, a pilot asked an air controller while flying near Iraq, “What time is it, and where are we?” In these cases, the aircraft were shown off course by certain distances.

Even the latest inertial reference systems (IRS) has been found to be vulnerable to spoofing.

The IRS can circumvent signal errors with available last correct information but it reads a 'spoof position' as true.

What is GPS: GPS or Global Positioning System is a satellite-based utility providing positioning and navigational services. It comprises of a series of satellites. Simply put it guides a road journey to its destination like in cabs to locating oneself in ocean while shipping or air while flying where nothing is seen by the naked eye. It provides time and location information anywhere on earth to a corresponding GPS receiver. According to NASA, GPS is a space-based radio-navigation system, owned by the US Government and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It can pinpoint a three-dimensional position to metre-level accuracy and time to the 10-nanosecond level, worldwide and 24/7. It reads like 20° N, 50° W means the location is 20 degrees north of the Equator and 50 degrees west of the Prime Meridian. With a GPS receiver, users can determine their precise latitude, longitude and altitude. The location of objects like vehicles, people, phones, bikes, etc. can be tracked in real time.

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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.

The irony lies in her illustration of her experiences in the country she has been living in for the last four years. What it really is!

ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!

The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.

Many of the victims were charred beyond recognition, making identification difficult. Three hundred nineteen body parts have been sent for DNA matching with relatives to determine the identities.

  • The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
  • The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
  • The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)

A comment on social media on Kanimozhi's answer on the question of national language read: "Daughter of Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi. Delivered the Birthday Present to her Father!!" (Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924) (Today's headlines )

Trump said, "Elon is not really leaving" and will be "back and forth" to the White House because DOGE is his "baby." "I think he’s going to be doing a lot of things.”

Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.

PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.

Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people. (Today's headlines )

"Coming from a system like in England, empowering," she says she never had an idea of this sort of experience... being asked to “socialise with middle-aged men” who financed the event...humiliating...

Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.

Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.

As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.

The committee headed by justice Kurian Joseph will study Centre-State relations and make proposals to ensure foolproof separation of powers.

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Of 2.08 km in length, it features 99 spans and a 72.5-metre vertical lift span that rises up to a height of 17 metres, facilitating smooth movement of ships while ensuring seamless train services to the holy town of Rameswaram on Pamban island.

ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!

What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America! (Today's headlines )

PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).

In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.

THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.

The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.

Suddenly these colonial clerks feel this effortless, little rule will tremendously enhance security and convenience for the railway passengers manifold. More stations will be covered in the next 77 years! (Also See: New Delhi station stampede... What went wrong?)

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