Russian regulator: Pilots should train for ‘worst-case’ navigation loss and flight-control failures

Russia’s federal air transport regulator is advising operators to ensure pilots receive additional training in non-precision approaches, given the risks of possible loss of satellite-based navigation capabilities due to interference. Rosaviatsia is also advising regular pilot training for coping aircraft control system failures – including loss of hydraulics – and establishing “worst-case” training scenarios to develop pilot skills. The recommendations are contained in a bulletin in which Rosaviatsia highlights an “increase”, during 2024 and early 2025, in the number of reports from crews and operators concerning failures or deviations affecting cockpit navigation aids. These failures “may be caused by unintentional radio interference” from sources including electronic countermeasures being used to protect Russian facilities from “illegal use” of unmanned aerial vehicles, it states. Rosaviatsia says a decision by the state commission on radio frequencies, dated April last year, permits the use of such countermeasures within 30km of an airport, as long as organisational and technical measures are developed to “minimise” harmful interference to aviation communications. The regulator advises that characteristic signs of interference, or spoofing of signals, include mismatched position data, time shifts, and abnormal discrepancies between airspeed and groundspeed.<br/>