Passenger planes headed to Ben-Gurion Airport have recently had to take alternative routes due to a severe attack on Israel that prevents it from navigating aircraft using GPS.
The alternate route—over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria—is longer than the one that allows for landing over Tel Aviv directly at Ben-Gurion Airport.
In recent months, Israel has been the target of incessant attacks by unknown elements, apparently from abroad, that interfere with GPS signals, almost completely preventing it from carrying out processes that allow planes to land along the standard routes.
For this reason, most of the landings are conducted through the alternative route, where landing is possible through an alternative source of approach guidance for aircraft called ILS, or Instrument Landing System.
Residents of the towns in Judea and Samaria, such as Modi’in Illit, Hashmonaim, Lapid and Kfar Oranim, have lodged complaints over the “unbearable” noise caused by passenger planes passing overhead at all hours of the day.
In response to the complaints, the authorities revealed that the reason for the change in the route stemmed from the attacks on Israel.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.