Imagine you’re in an airplane, looking aimlessly outside the window. Wonder what would go through your mind if you were to see a car carrying passengers, taking the airport taxiway to reach the passenger terminal. One can only fathom what people in such positions would have thought when they saw two such cars over the past three weeks, take the Taxiway Bravo at Fairbanks International Airport to reach the ramp side of the passenger terminal. Both incidents have one common denominator, the infamous Maps application that debuted in iOS 6 last year.
Local reports indicate these out-of-town people were following turn-by-turn directions on their iOS devices to reach the airport. The route that Maps suggests includes going down the taxiway, which is actually meant for aircrafts. Melissa Osborn, chief of operations at the Fairbanks Airport said that none of the drivers paid any attention to “several signs” which indicated that they had entered a restricted area and that they even drove past a gate. The first incident took place on September 6th, after which the airport complained to Apple through the attorney general’s office. They requested that Apple disable the map for Fairbanks Airport until the matter could be resolved, the company didn’t comply. The second incident took place on September 20th, and Fairbanks has now blocked access to Taxiway Bravo from Flat Pond Road. Apple already knows about this issue and may fix it soon. So remember, it is you who controls the GPS, not the other way around. [Image via Alaska Dispatch]
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