A plane flying from Portugal to Scotland was mistakenly told it was flying near the North Pole when its navigation gear malfunctioned
- A Ryanair flight was told it was near the North Pole when it was actually over northern Spain.
- The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Portugal to Scotland in October 2018 when one of its instruments wildly misjudged the plane's position.
- A number of other errors, including with the plane's altitude readings, prompted the pilots to fly the plane manually, and it had an "uneventful" landing in Edinburgh.
- The plane was tested, but "no specific fault or failure could be identified or confirmed."
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A plane from Portugal to Scotland was mistakenly told it was was flying near the North Pole when its navigation equipment malfunctioned.
The flight, Ryanair flight EI GJT, was flying over northern Spain with 177 passengers on board in October 2018 when the plane's Inertial Reference System malfunctioned, according to the UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch.
The system showed the pilots that they were near the North Pole.
However, the pilots knew this wasn't true, and continued the flight by controlling the plane manually, the report said. A separate GPS system showed the correct position of the plane.
The plane's altitude and windshear indicators also malfunctioned, according to the report, leading pilots to run through checklists and the plane's manuals.
The AAIB said the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, made a safe and "uneventful" landing in Edinburgh using manual breaking.
The AAIB looked at the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder after the flight. Boeing tested the plane, and found "no significant faults or defects were found" after multiple tests.
Ultimately, "no specific fault or failure could be identified or confirmed" and a simulator of the plane "was unable to replicate the fault that occurred in the aircraft."
The plane had 1,705 flight hours before the flight.