GPS disruptions continue to plague airports across Texas. The source is unknown. Federal Aviation Administration officials have warned pilots of potential problems — at least one runway at the large Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was temporarily closed.
The FAA told Bloomberg that it is “investigating possible jamming of the global positioning system (GPS) that aircraft use to guide them to runways and during their flights.”
According to the FAA, it has found “no evidence of intentional interference.”
The problem is intermittent. American and Southwest Airlines told Bloomberg their planes were not experiencing disruptions.
The Epoch Times reported the flight tracking website ADS-B “appeared to have been the first to report GPS interference around Dallas on Monday.”
A post on the website read: “Significant GPS interference being reported by pilots in the Dallas area. Aircraft being rerouted onto non-RNAV arrivals.”
On Tuesday, the ADS-B’s website, noted that “GPS interference was being reported also near Waco, Texas, and near the Fort Hood military base in Killeen.”
Dan Streufert, the founder of the flight-tracking website, confirmed to Bloomberg that GPS interference in the Dallas region is unusual, noting, “In the U.S., it’s very unusual to see this without a prior notice.”
John Hansman, an Aerospace professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Bloomberg that “GPS jamming has always been a risk area. It’s not that difficult or expensive technically to jam GPS. Which is why we don’t use GPS as the only navigation source.”
Last January, aviation officials in Denver issued an alert noting that “interference” made GPS unreliable within a 50-mile radius of the Denver International Airport.
In an interview with GPSWorld last month, Mike Roskind, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reported that the Denver incident lasted about 33 hours and impacted various infrastructures and systems across the area.
The Epoch Times noted, “Top federal officials have warned that GPS is considered a vulnerability within the U.S. national security apparatus.”
National Security Council director for response Caitlin Durkovich said to GPSWorld in December that such disruptions represent “a significant single point of failure in our country” because “positioning, navigation, and timing is foundational to our life.”
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