Narrative:

The flight was proceeding normally until we entered the magadan fir; in the eastern most portion of russia. Our flight plan had us making a 45 degree right turn at waypoint lunad; to track outbound to girlo on airway G212. The autopilot turned us about 6 miles early; this was evidenced by the coincidental parallel tracking of another aircraft on the same airway approx 3;000 ft below us. Magadan control notified us that we were in fact 12 kilometers to the right of centerline; tracking parallel. The captain; as pilot flying; initiated a 6 mile left-of-course offset in the litton 72; at which point the aircraft resumed the proper tracking along the airway. Furthermore; magadan notified us that 'all company aircraft are 12 kilometers off course at this point.' he asked us if we had issues with our autopilot. No further action was taken until we entered anchorage's airspace; as that was the first opportunity the navigation system had to pick up a VOR for updating. There are no usable VOR's along the entire russian landscape; we were flying un-updated navigation system for maybe 5 hours at that point. The event occurred because we are flying old and outdated navigation equipment in areas of the world where they should not be used. After leaving japan's airspace; there is not one single opportunity to update the navigation system; as there are no VOR's anywhere along the course of flight. These navigation systems drift a lot; as evidenced by the accuracy check performed upon landing; #1 INS had an error of 2 miles; #2 INS had an error of 7 miles; and #3 INS had an error of 10 miles.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B747-200 flight crew reports being informed by ATC over LUNAD that the aircraft is tracking 12 KM to the right of the airway and that all company aircraft seem to exhibit the same error. The crew believes the navigation system's IRSs are old and do not have any opportunity to update in Russian airspace.

Narrative: The flight was proceeding normally until we entered the Magadan FIR; in the eastern most portion of Russia. Our flight plan had us making a 45 degree right turn at waypoint LUNAD; to track outbound to GIRLO on airway G212. The autopilot turned us about 6 miles early; this was evidenced by the coincidental parallel tracking of another aircraft on the same airway approx 3;000 FT below us. Magadan Control notified us that we were in fact 12 KILOMETERS to the right of centerline; tracking parallel. The Captain; as pilot flying; initiated a 6 mile left-of-course offset in the Litton 72; at which point the aircraft resumed the proper tracking along the airway. Furthermore; Magadan notified us that 'ALL Company aircraft are 12 kilometers off course at this point.' He asked us if we had issues with our autopilot. No further action was taken until we entered Anchorage's airspace; as that was the first opportunity the navigation system had to pick up a VOR for updating. There are no usable VOR's along the entire Russian landscape; we were flying un-updated navigation system for maybe 5 hours at that point. The event occurred because we are flying old and outdated navigation equipment in areas of the world where they should not be used. After leaving Japan's airspace; there is not one single opportunity to update the navigation system; as there are no VOR's ANYWHERE along the course of flight. These navigation systems drift a LOT; as evidenced by the accuracy check performed upon landing; #1 INS had an error of 2 miles; #2 INS had an error of 7 miles; and #3 INS had an error of 10 miles.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.