Ryanair flight to Austria diverted to Czech Republic after GPS issue

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A Ryanair flight bound for the Austrian capital Vienna had to land in the neighbouring Czech Republic late on Monday after encountering GPS problems and poor visibility, the company said.

The Irish airline was responding to an Austrian media report that the flight from Riga had diverted to the Czech city of Brno because the GPS signal was disrupted over Poland due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Newspaper Die Presse said this was the message relayed to passengers by the captain of the flight, which landed safely in Brno. The passengers were then taken to Vienna by bus, Ryanair said.

"Flight FR748 from Riga to Vienna yesterday Mon. 30 Dec diverted to Brno due to a minor tech issue with the GPS system combined with low visibility (fog) at Vienna," Ryanair said in a statement, which did not mention the reports of GPS jamming.

The flight was an Airbus A320 operating under the Lauda brand, according to the Flightradar tracking website.

(Writing by Dave Graham in Zurich and Conor Humphries in Dublin; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)