India, Nov. 12 -- Two breakdowns in aviation rarely occur together by chance; it's like lightning striking the same place twice. When Delhi's Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS) failed recently, slowing air traffic operations to a crawl, several pilots also reported GPS anomalies over northern India-signals suggesting possible spoofing of satellite navigation data. Though officially unconnected, the two events are uncomfortably close in time. In a world where both digital and satellite networks can be disrupted-intentionally or indirectly-this coincidence warrants deeper investigation rather than a quick technical explanation.
The AMSS is the nerve centre of air traffic communication, routing flight plans and operational messages bet...