From Saturday to Monday, GPSJam – a website that shows the accuracy of plane navigation systems – has reported medium to high levels of inaccuracy from planes flying over the northern Taiwanese cities of Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu. It reported that less than 2 per cent of flights in the surrounding areas had low levels of inaccuracy.
GPSJam collects data from ADS-B Exchange, a flight-tracking website that relies on people – many of them aviation enthusiasts – to record the position, altitude, speed and aircraft type when planes pass over data-collection devices they set up near their homes, airports and flight paths.
A plane transmits its location with a transponder on board to help air traffic control and other aircraft identify it – but the device can be switched off and the data can be spoofed.
From Saturday to Monday, 10 to 20 per cent of planes over Taoyuan experienced interference, according to a graph generated by GPSJam posted on Twitter by John Wiseman, a Los Angeles-based aviation hobbyist who runs the site.
There were no notices to aircrews of disruptions to navigation systems filed for the Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei. The South China Morning Post’s correspondent in Taipei did not experience disruptions when using the US-owned GPS, or Global Positioning System, in the past few days.
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Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s naval academy in Kaohsiung, also said he had no problems using GPS on Tuesday.
But Lu said Beijing would not “flex its muscles” without a cause.
“Most countries keep their electronic warfare capabilities – whether it’s electronic attack or electronic protection – a secret,” Lu said. “If they routinely expose their combat capability, their adversaries would be learning their attack frequency and the strength of their offence. Their adversaries would then be able to assess the competence of their electronic warfare.”
The PLA conducted a high-profile military exercise around Taiwan in early April in response to US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California. It was the first time an aircraft carrier and civilian marine authorities took part in such drills.
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Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be united with the mainland, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but the US opposes any attempt by Beijing to take the island by force and is required by law to arm the island for defence.
Lu said if there was any disruption to navigation systems, airlines and delivery drivers would have issued warnings but he had not seen any.
Taiwan’s National Communications Commission also said on Wednesday that traffic control at the Taoyuan International Airport had complained about radio interference.
Wong Po-tsung, the commission’s vice-chairman, told reporters that “intermittent interference” was detected on Friday and Saturday in a frequency band used by GPS, but that it was caused by other government agencies which were using the frequency band legally.
