'Apple Maps' error sends motorists barreling across runways at Alaskan airport

An Alaskan airport was forced to temporarily close a section of runway that the "Apple Maps" app falsely identified as a public road. According to BBC News, the Fairbanks International Airport has had two drivers drive across the blocked-off section of runway in the last three weeks.

Apple has reportedly now fixed the problem, but not before the airport was forced to contact the company twice due to motorists misinterpreting the app's directions.

"We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this," said Melissa Osborn, airport operations chief, to the Alaska Dispatch.

The map error sent drivers across two taxiways and one main runway. The airport has erected barriers shutting off the stretch of runway until it is convinced that Apple has fixed the error.

This is not the first major error to plague the Apple Maps system. The Australian Police Force issued a consumer warning after motorists were stranded in a national park due to faulty directions. The original release of the app -- which Apple made a default setting for iPhones and other devices, ditching Google Maps -- showed Ireland's Dublin International Airport as being 18 miles away from its actual location.

[image of frightened driver via Shutterstock.com]