Electronic jamming attacks on commercial jets that disable satnavs have been described as ‘extremely dangerous’ and blamed on Russian hackers.

The UK’s Sun tabloid newspaper claims there were thousands of such attacks targeting airlines operated by the like of Ryanair, Wizz Air, Jet2, British Airways and easyJet in the eight months to the end of March.

The attacks have forced aircraft to alter routes to avoid ‘phantom’ objects as bogus data is fed into the aircraft’s navigation systems, according to the newspaper.

Glen Bradley, head of flight operations at UK regulator CAA, reassured flyers that protocols are in place that protect aircraft navigation systems.

He said GPS jamming does not impact the navigation of an aircraft or mean it has been done deliberately and regulators work with the industry to mitigate risks and report incidents.

Citing industry sources, The Sun reported that Russian suspects linked to president Vladimir Putin are thought to be to blame.

Sun readers can enter their destination into a search box on its website to see what the level of threat is to their flight’s destination.

Destinations that have been targeted include airports in countries close to Ukraine in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Due to the war in Ukraine spoofing and jamming of signals is a widely used tactic to prevent drones and missiles from hitting their intended targets.

The perpetrators were said to deploy two different types of attack: jamming, which drowns out genuine signals from GPS and Europe’s Galileo system; and Spoofing, sending bogus signals to confuse an aircraft’s system.

Luc Tytgat, boss of European aviation regulator EASA, was quoted as saying: “We have seen a sharp rise in attacks on these systems, which poses a safety risk.”

Analysis conducted by the newspaper alongside GPSJAM.org found aircraft that have reported low navigation accuracy correlate areas known to be targeted by jammers.

The Sun claimed its research has found that attacks have increased from just 50 a week to 350 with most UK airlines having been targeted.