Really odd aircraft routing!

[HoHoHo]

I’m now on the final leg and flight home, Abu Dhabi to Heathrow on an A380 and as we know, what a great aircraft it is and full of lovely tech.

Something odd is happening when I look at the route we have taken and I just don’t understand what I’m seeing.

This is a photo of the apparent route we’ve flown so far; take off, over Saudi and then north towards Cairo. Then a sharp right and then left before another sharp right over Athens and we now appear to be heading directly towards London.





I thought that looked odd and probably wasn’t correct so I opened planefinder and narrowed the aircraft and airline down to Etihad and my type of aircraft.

This has exactly the same flight plan shown



So I guess the questions are;

The info on the screen in front of me you would assume is from the pointy bit about 10m ahead of me and in theory should be accurate?

Does planefinder simply get the data from the aircraft all the time, does it get any info from anywhere else?

Has the aircraft actually flown that pattern or is it simply a blip?

Is it simply a GPS error between the aircraft and IFE/planefinder etc.

If we have flown that route, WTF is going on?!

We are still very much on time to land, I can’t see them driving around Europe simply to lose a few minutes here and there if it’s getting in early!

[shirt]

I’d imagine gps error. Ask one of the crew, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t tell you if it is indeed genuine.

[HoHoHo]

shirt said:

I’d imagine gps error. Ask one of the crew, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t tell you if it is indeed genuine.

I have and the answer was it’s ‘sometimes’ weather - to be honest I’m not sure she knows (or is in the slightest interested!)

If I wasn’t on a tight timescale to get to my next stop I’d ask to have a word with the flight deck, Etihad are pretty good at accommodating that sort of request from my own experience.

[rix]

Definately looks like an error. Our of curiosity/insomnia I just looked you up on fr24, and when the flight is 'played back' it seems to skip around places, Luke the GPS is giving duff info. I have absolutely no knowledge in this though so also wonder how in earth it can provide such unreliable data - you would think it quite necessary for the flight deck to be able to rely on this!

[Eric Mc]

GPS is not a primary source of navigation on aircraft. It is used as a back up.

[CanAm]

What does FlightRadar24 use to track flights?

I played back one of our recent flights on arriving home and it showed our extensive holding pattern quite accurately.

[ecsrobin]

CanAm said:

What does FlightRadar24 use to track flights?

I played back one of our recent flights on arriving home and it showed our extensive holding pattern quite accurately.

ADS-B

[CanAm]

ecsrobin said:

CanAm said:

What does FlightRadar24 use to track flights?

I played back one of our recent flights on arriving home and it showed our extensive holding pattern quite accurately.

ADS-B

ADS-B? Thank god for Google.

[657]

Eric Mc said:

GPS is not a primary source of navigation on aircraft. It is used as a back up.

You may need to check that statement

[HoHoHo]

I didn’t manage to have a chat with anyone on the flight deck so I can’t confirm for sure if it’s a detour or software problem.

We landed on time and aside from flying around Europe it was an uneventful and comfortable flight.

[essayer]

That’s really weird isn’t it? The inflight map and ADS-B would presumably use the same data source, so that explains why they align .. but I would say it’s nearly impossible for the aircraft to have flown that path .. the turns are just too sharp. Weird

[sherman]

It looks like they were avoiding the whole Israel/Lebanon bit and then pissed off Turkisk Air traffic control and got back on track once the Greeks gave them permission to come in.

[aeropilot]

rix said:

Definately looks like an error.

I agree.
Its not uncommon to see on ADS-B.

[48k]

It's quite a smooth route for a data error though isn't it? Whenever I see errors on FR or ADSB Exchange they are quite sharp jagged lines..

[jinkster]

Lots of GPS jamming in that area. Suspect the route went from Cairo towards Athens and then Belgrade and through central Europe.

[MTK1919]

That’s bizarre.

Given you’ve landed broadly on time, I would suggest it was an error. Besides, I’m fairly sure you’d notice event a few turns on that route.

I fly EK from DXB to LHR and back every month and we nearly always take the same route over Iran, Iraq into Turkey across the Black Sea etc.

[ttrjs]

GPS jamming/spoofing. I guarantee it. That region is rife for it over the past few months. Have a look at gpsjam.org to see the current issues with various militaries jamming in the region.

[MarkwG]

657 said:

Eric Mc said:

GPS is not a primary source of navigation on aircraft. It is used as a back up.

You may need to check that statement

Indeed...we're in the 21st Century, GPS isn't the future any more...

[Simpo Two]

ttrjs said:

GPS jamming/spoofing. I guarantee it. That region is rife for it over the past few months. Have a look at gpsjam.org to see the current issues with various militaries jamming in the region.

So how does an airliner navigate in that situation if they all use GPS and there's no back-up system?

[48k]

MarkwG said:

657 said:

Eric Mc said:

GPS is not a primary source of navigation on aircraft. It is used as a back up.

You may need to check that statement

Indeed...we're in the 21st Century, GPS isn't the future any more...

It's not, but you might want to swat up on how Inertial Navigation Systems and Inertial Reference Systems work before criticising someone who stated that GPS is not the *primary* source of navigation.