Explained | What is GPS spoofing that has misguided around 20 planes near Iran-Iraq border and how dangerous is this

Around 20 aircraft were misguided to enter the Iranian airspace by fake GPS signals while flying over the Iraq-Iran border, prompting the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration to issue a memo saying that the route poses “safety risk”. The news was first reported by OPSGROUP, a flight data intel crowdsourcing website.

Boeing 777, 737 and 747 were among the planes that were tricked into venturing off course due to these rogue signals coming from the ground. As per the report, these signals got the better of the aircraft’s inbuilt navigation system, which quickly led to complete loss of the plane’s navigational capability.