I’m watching a flight a family member is on right now, and there was a flight correction without any weather nearby. flightaware.com/live/flight/BTA5739
Of course I immediately thought mechanical problem, someone else is now flying the plane, etc. The flight now looks like it’s back on course to O’Hare, but what could have caused them to go off the flight path?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4774872828_99bf715478_b.jpg
flights are often rerouted for traffic reasons. could be for spacing between aircraft for example
Ok. Because it’s gotten off track again in Illinois.
I posted a question about the same situation four years ago and got essentially the same answer. I was on a flight from DFW to ORD (same destination as your flight in question).
The “track” in blue is simply a representation of the anticipated track based on the flight plan that was filed. There is no “rule” that requires the aircraft to actually follow that track once it takes of and becomes subservient to the directions of air traffic control.
As already stated, the deviation can be due to many outside influences, the majority of which are benign.
The dotted blue line is updated in realtime when flights are rerouted. I’d guess this little deviation wasn’t big enough to trigger a new flightpath to be sent to us.