The aircraft was not fitted with an inertial navigation system, and GPS navigation was not available at the time. Due to an error in calculating magnetic declination, the plane flew in an enormous, right-turning arc. (The location of the turn corresponded quite closely with the location of the North Magnetic Pole, which is likely to have contributed to, if not directly caused, the error.) It flew southeast over the Svalbard archipelago and the Barents Sea, past northern Scandinavia and into Soviet airspace.