Recently, more and more planes have landed at Ben Gurion Airport on routes that pass over the Hashmona'im area. This is a runway that requires planes entering Israel to make a longer detour than the runway that allows landing over Tel Aviv directly at Ben Gurion Airport.
The reason for this may be worrying - the State of Israel is suffering a severe attack that prevents passenger planes from navigating using GPS, Israel Hayom has learned. In recent months, the country has experienced incessant GPS interference from obscure sources, apparently outside the country, which almost completely denies it the ability to carry out critical processes that allow planes to land on standard runways. For this reason, most landings are carried out on a designated route, where ground navigation (ILS) can be carried out that passes over the communities of Modi'in Illit, Hashmona'im, Lapid and Kfar HaOranim.
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Residents recently turned to Prime Minister Israel Gantz, complaining about the huge noise they receive from passenger planes passing overhead. For many years, passenger planes have been landing over East Binyamin, but now, they said, flights have become an intolerable hazard day and night.
Rare admission
Gantz approached the Airports Authority and complained about the unusual noise, which revealed in response that the reason for the increased inferiority over the settlements in Binyamin was an attack on the State of Israel. This is a rare admission by an Israeli authority of an attack against its ability to act civilianly.
"Usually, for both operational and environmental reasons, landings are carried out using an RNP approach (landing using the aircraft's GPS systems), except during inclement weather and poor visibility conditions, or during disruptions in GPS systems," wrote Iris Raz, head of the Airports Authority's Environmental Protection Division. "In recent months, the State of Israel has experienced incessant GPS interference from obscure sources, apparently outside the State of Israel. These disturbances almost completely prevent the ability to perform RNP processes, and therefore almost all landings are carried out on the ILS route (landing based on ground navigation aid), which is the long route that passes over Modi'in Illit, Hashmona'im and Kfar HaOranim.
"The Airports Authority is aware of the effects of noise around Ben Gurion Airport, and is constantly doing its best to minimize it and divide it fairly between the various communities in the Ben Gurion Airport area, while trying, as much as possible, to direct planes to land on runway 30 using an RNP approach," Raz wrote. "Air traffic management is a unique and professional field that requires the Airport, as the operator of Ben Gurion Airport, to act in a manner that will ensure maximum flight safety, and therefore it is not possible to undertake absolutely to refrain from diverting aircraft to the runway using the ILS approach, despite the impact this has on the communities located along the flight path in preparation for landing."
The disruptions in question take place at a time when Ben-Gurion Airport is dealing with exceptional loads of arrivals and departures, Ben Gurion Airport (archive), photo: Yossi Zeliger
Significant interference
The ILS system is a system that allows planes to land at an airport even without the use of GPS technology and essentially automatically directs the plane to the runway, until the moment of landing. Such interference by hostile elements, as described in an official letter issued by the Israel Airports Authority, is considered very significant and succeeds in affecting the operation of the main and largest airport in Israel.
The disruptions in question take place at a time when Ben-Gurion Airport is dealing with exceptional loads of arrivals and departures with about 100,<> passengers every day during the High Holidays and summer.
Every day, hundreds of landings are made at Ben-Gurion Airport, and most of them, as mentioned, are transferred to the same route that passes over the Jerusalem mountains, which until a few months ago was much less crowded, but as mentioned, interference that affects pilots' navigation using GPS technology causes a change in the way Ben Gurion Airport operates.
Head of the Regional Council Binyamin Israel Gantz: "We are in constant contact with the Airports Authority in order to examine various options for dealing with the terrible noise nuisance that has landed on the residents of the area. We understand that there are constraints on the security and technological level, but we will continue to hold an ongoing dialogue with senior officials in the Palestinian Authority in order to find alternatives and solutions for relief."
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