Skip to main content

Apple’s aviation inaccuracies

Two drivers in Alaska caused some concern to aviation movements by following directions from Apple Maps. The drivers first crossed the taxiway and then the runway at Fairbanks Airport. How they were able to enter the supposedly secure airport however has not been revealed and nor have their IQ ratings. The drivers ignored numerous signposts and painted markings saying that the area they were entering was restricted to aircraft and not for road vehicles. The airport authorities erected barriers until the map
February 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Two drivers in Alaska caused some concern to aviation movements by following directions from Apple Maps. The drivers first crossed the taxiway and then the runway at Fairbanks Airport. How they were able to enter the supposedly secure airport however has not been revealed and nor have their IQ ratings. The drivers ignored numerous signposts and painted markings saying that the area they were entering was restricted to aircraft and not for road vehicles. The airport authorities erected barriers until the maps could be corrected.

This is one of a series of blunders in the Apple Maps function. Drivers in Ireland looking for Dublin Airport were for a time directed to a farm called Airfield, some 17km from their proper destination. Meanwhile in Victoria, Australia, police at one point criticised inaccurate directions to the town of Mildura as being potentially life threatening. Apple customers could take note that old-fashioned maps are able to operate faultlessly without the need for either an electrical supply or a GSM signal and do not have issues with battery life. Meanwhile also in the US, the pilot of a light aircraft caused some disturbance to motorists when he had to make an emergency landing on a highway in Florida.

The engine of his aircraft began to fail and the pilot realised he was not going to be able to reach the nearest airstrip. He immediately began looking for the nearest stretch of straight road and managed to land the historic aircraft on State Road 415 without injury, although he did cause some traffic disturbance.

Related Content

  • UK developing plan to tackle driving under the influence of drugs
    March 22, 2012
    The UK Government is now working on a plan to address the road safety issues caused by driving under the influence of drugs. A panel of experts has been set up to evaluate the levels of various illegal drugs in the bloodstream that would affect driving ability.
  • Put down that phone behind the wheel
    January 27, 2017
    The recent news that the road casualty rate in the Netherlands has seen an increase should ring alarm bells in many areas. It is worth bearing in mind that the Netherlands has some of the safest roads in the world. But the latest research carried out by Dutch insurance umbrella body Verbond van Verzekeraars shows that the road fatality rate grew from 570 in 2014 to 621 in 2015, while the number of road crashes increased by 6.5% to 841,000 in 2015. Nor is this trend limited to the Netherlands: the problem
  • Put down that phone behind the wheel
    January 27, 2017
    The recent news that the road casualty rate in the Netherlands has seen an increase should ring alarm bells in many areas. It is worth bearing in mind that the Netherlands has some of the safest roads in the world. But the latest research carried out by Dutch insurance umbrella body Verbond van Verzekeraars shows that the road fatality rate grew from 570 in 2014 to 621 in 2015, while the number of road crashes increased by 6.5% to 841,000 in 2015. Nor is this trend limited to the Netherlands: the problem
  • Advances in road markings
    March 16, 2012
    Recent months have seen many major and vital road marking projects and products completed and tested in different parts of the world. Guy Woodford looks at some of them in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea now has one of the most dramatic streetscape designs in Europe. Exhibition Road’s striking chequered granite design, featuring a single surface running from South Kensington Station to Hyde Park and the full width of the road from building to b