Video: MSC box ship grounds in apparent GPS jamming incident

An MSC container vessel has reportedly run aground some 100 nautical miles (nm) off the coast of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. 

Videos of an MSC vessel, taken from a tug and showing multiple tugs attempting to free the listing vessel, have been posted to a YouTube channel under the name Wassim Radwan with headlines including MSC ANTONIA Grounding at Red Sea 11/05/2025.

Multiple vessel tracking platforms, including that of vessel valuation platform VesselsValue, have AIS data in which MSC Antonia has listed its status as ’aground’.

"7,000-TEU vessel MSC Antonia is broadcasting its status on AIS as aground in the Red Sea some 100 nm south of Jeddah. According to MSC’s online schedule the vessel came from Malta on its West Med to Red Sea service. It was in Jeddah 10-11 May and was then scheduled to be in King Abdullah port on 12 May. However, the vessel track on AIS appears highly erratic likely due to the GPS interference reported in recent days by UKMTO," container shipping consultant Lars Jensen posted to his LinkedIn professional social media profile.

The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) unit posted a warning on 9 May of electronic interference in the Red Sea in the area where MSC Antonia’s AIS track showed the vessel having transited. AIS shows the vessel departed from the US East Coast in late April, then crossed the Atlantic, stopped in Spain, Italy and Malta before transiting the Suez Canal, heading south. 

"UKMTO has received a number of corroborating reports from vessels experiencing GPS interference in the Red Sea... with disruptions lasting several hours, affecting navigation systems and requiring vessels to rely on backup methods. Masters who experience disruption to electronic navigation systems (GPS/AIS/Other PNT) anywhere within the UKMTO Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) are requested to contact UKMTO watchkeepers via watchkeepers@ukmto.org or 02392 222065," the service posted in its advisory.

Maritime artificial intelligence platform Windward AI founder Ami Daniel posted images and information to his LinkedIn profile showing jamming activity in the Red Sea over the dates indicated by UKMTO. Mr Daniel also said there has been a "significant escalation in jamming capability" from late 2024 to early 2025.

"This is a clear and present danger for shipping . As someone whose ship has grounded once, it’s not a very good experience which may end up with an oil spill. For monitoring and intelligence purposes, this is simply skewing the data completely. Trust in the data is a prerequisite to trust in any insights," he said.

At the end of March 2025, an International Maritime Organization report said an increase in shipping routes impacted by GPS and GNSS jamming and spoofing were putting seafarer’s lives at risk. 

Rising numbers of incidents where the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other GNSS constellations, such as the European Union’s Galileo, are being jammed or spoofed in more maritime areas, particularly those close to conflict zones, are creating conditions that increase the likelihood of collisions and groundings.
These cases of harmful interference are typically either aimed at particular bands of radio frequencies or specific vessels, but are adding to the already high number of safety risks affecting shipping and seafarers. 
IMO said it is highly concerned about the rising incidents of GNSS jamming and spoofing in areas such as the Black Sea, eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea. 

Hexagon technical sales manager Edward Milne spoke to Riviera about variations in jamming and spoofing, and solutions to mitigate their impact in early 2025 at the Offshore Support Journal Conference in London.

Riviera contacted MSC with a request for confirmation of the incident but has not received a response as of the time of publication.