ATCs must report spoofing within 10 minutes: DGCA

India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed pilots, air traffic controllers (ATCs) and airlines to report GPS spoofing and other Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interferences within 10 minutes of detection.

The directive aims to ensure flight safety and operational integrity, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a circular.

“Any pilot, ATC controller, or technical unit detecting abnormal GPS behaviour such as position anomalies, navigation errors, loss of GNSS signal integrity, or spoofed location data, shall initiate real-time reporting within 10 minutes of occurrence,” the regulator said. Several instances of GPS interference were detected around Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi recently, which handles over 1,500 flight movements daily.

The regulator asked all stakeholders to immediately log and share details such as date, time, aircraft type, registration, route, and coordinates of the affected area. Further they are urged to specify the type of interference such as jamming, spoofing, signal loss or integrity error and the aircraft equipment impacted.