n aircraft equipped with IRSs, magnetic heading is derived from true heading, which references true north, and then adding or subtracting the magnetic variation (the difference between true and magnetic north for that geographic longitude). The magnetic variation for Sydney at the time of the occurrence was 12.56° east at a longitude of 151° 9.8’ east. The flight data recorder showed that the longitude manually entered by the captain at ADIRS initialisation was 15° 19.79’ east. This equates to a position off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, about 11,000 km from Sydney Airport. The magnetic variation for this position is 23.57° west. The cumulative difference in magnetic variation between these two points (the actual longitude of the aircraft (Sydney Airport), and that calculated using the incorrectly entered longitude, off South Africa) equates to 36.13°. The difference between the runway direction and the magnetic heading indicated by the aircraft was approximately 38°.