While on a flight recently we passed just over the southern edge of Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, on an almost due-east heading, but the position readings in the tracking log shows that we were north of Peachtree-DeKalb Airport. This is an error of over 20 miles. What is the source of this tracking data and how reliable is it generally?
The flight was American Eagle 3483 from KDFW to KCHS, on June 12, 2008. The positions indicated in the flight log showed it passing through the northern edges of the city of Atlanta (north of KPDK), but our actual position was almost directly over Hartsfield Airport.
I was on that same flight again on June 26, and the positions in the flight log appear to fairly closely track the actual position over Atlanta
June 12th
Click on the map for a larger size, and it shows that flight went right over the south side of the Atlanta bypass (I-285, the circular freeway there), which is where KATL is. I guess the problem, if any, was fixed.