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One Typo, Wrong Continent

One Typo, Wrong Continent

CGP Grey
2 HN recommenders · discussed 2022–2025
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About this video

CGP Grey explains why airport codes are inconsistent and sometimes confusing, from their origins in old weather station codes to the quirks that cause mistakes. He builds the story around a single typo that sent a flight to the wrong continent.

Why it appears in the archive

HN people point to it as a fun summary of how messy airport codes are, especially in threads on aviation falsehoods and code collisions.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

simplyinfinity · 2022-12 · rec

CGP Grey did a couple of episodes on runways[0] and airport codes[1] that are just fascinating and worth the watch [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]

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Titan2189 · 2025-06 · rec

Great Summary of how messed up Airport Codes are by CGP Grey [VIDEO] including (attempts at) a few in-depth reasons for why these quirks exists

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shagie · 2024-11 · reference

CGP Grey The Maddening Mess of Airport Codes! [VIDEO] I'd rather deal with designing tables to properly represent names.

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