GPS Interference Snarls Venezuela as US Warns of Hazardous Skies [View all]

An invisible wall of electromagnetic noise has descended over the Caribbean, forcing commercial flights to divert and cancel routes over Venezuela since late last week. For a smartphone user on the ground in Caracas, this interference might just mean a slow map load or a jumping blue dot. For an aircraft cruising at 30,000 feet, the implications are far more severe.

The disruptions are increasing amid a US military buildup in the Caribbean that’s included attacks on alleged drug-running boats, killing more than 80 people. The arrival this month of the world’s largest aircraft carrier deepened uncertainty about US President Donald Trump’s ultimate goal. And the threat of potential land strikes has prompted socialist leader Nicolás Maduro to put Venezuela’s military on high alert.

As a result, the skies over the country have become more and more of a no-go zone for commercial aircraft. The US Federal Aviation Administration issued a critical warning to pilots on Nov. 20, citing “heightened interference.” But data analyzed by Bloomberg show the electronic disruption began surging weeks earlier, coinciding with Trump’s naval buildup. The interference has rendered the airspace effectively impassable to standard satellite navigation that countless systems rely upon.

Most navigation relies on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), colloquially known as the global positioning system. This overarching term covers American GPS, Europe’s Galileo and Russia’s GLONASS — the invisible tethers that guide everything from modern airliners to the smartphone in your pocket.

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