KEY POINTS:
The village lies east of the Medway, beyond the chalky escarpment of the North Downs and the ancient Pilgrims' Way between Winchester and Canterbury.
The approach descends to Tumblefield Rd. On one side is the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, abounding with daffodils. Opposite stands the Black Horse Inn.
Yet according to British Airways, this is the location for Britain's third-busiest airport.
BA is using maps that place Stansted Airport 64km out of position in a village that shares its name. On the inflight "skymap" that shows passengers their location, the airline has shifted the Essex airport to the far side of the Thames Estuary and this leafy corner of Kent.
A spokesman for Stansted Airport said, "I've just checked and I can definitely confirm that Stansted Airport is still in Essex. It hasn't moved."
BA blames outside contractors hired to make the map. "It was the mistake of the independent company that produced the software," said a BA spokeswoman. The cartographer appears to have confused the vast Essex airport, which handles 25 million passengers a year, with Stansted village, which has a population of around 200. The name means "stony place".
The error affects British Airways' entire Airbus fleet of 67 aircraft, but is not replicated on the pilots' navigation systems. Fixing the problem requires entirely new software to be installed across the fleet.
- INDEPENDENT
