2025-06 · NASA ASRS report 2250858
Light aircraft flight instructor reported an airspace violation occurred when they departed from their cruise altitude after experiencing GPS jamming in the HSV area.
My student and I were cruising direct to ZZZ at 3000ft MSL with advisory services speaking to Huntsville Approach. We were flying through the Huntsville airspace from the northeast on a southwest course that had us briefly flying over R-2104C. We were flying with ATC advisory services (flight following) and ATC had cleared us direct on a course that would take us through R-2104C and told us to remain at or above 3;000ft MSL. The autopilot was flying the aircraft and we crossed over the R-2104C at ~3;020ft. We had the local altimeter setting at Huntsville. There was also some light turbulence at the time. Upon overflying R-2104C; our AHARS and GPS failed and the autopilot disconnected. We believe GPS spoofing/ jamming activity in the vicinity of our aircraft caused the system malfunction. While this happened; we were VMC and looking out the window; so it took a couple seconds to realize the issue. Upon seeing the crew alerting system messages on the G1000 panel; turbulence -- combined with not having hands on the yoke as the AP (Autopilot) was assumed to be flying -- caused us to lose altitude. I immediately disabled the autopilot and began hand flying the aircraft; trying to regain the lost altitude and heading while also investigating/ troubleshooting the issue. While I can't be certain; it's possible that during this time of regaining control of the aircraft; I may have briefly descended below the 3;000ft over R-2104C. Our altimeter was just on the cusp of descending below 3;000ft. Shortly after we were given a vector by ATC to turn to a heading of 270; taking us out of R-2104C to west. After leaving R-2104C; the affected systems returned to functioning normally.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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