Why are my friends flying over Norway, Sweden and Denmark from Manchester to Vancouver? I'll start off by letting you all know that I am 100% blind, so I won't be able to read a map.

My friend Hudson came over to Canada with her friends last year, September 1 or August 31, 2016.

She likes to check where she's at once in a while when flying. She said it was an Air Transat Airbus 330-200. She doesn't remember the flight number, but it was probably TSC-285 or TSC-255.

Anyway, when she flew from Manchester (EGCC) to Vancouver (CYVR), she said "(laughs), Ann was out like a light when we flew over the Scandinavian countries." How on earth does this work?  I may be blind, but I do know that Vancouver is southwest of Manchester, and the Scandinavian countries are northeast of Manchester.

My question is, why would they fly over Norway, Sweden and Denmark when that is the opposite way to Vancouver? I'd love for an explanation please.

Note:

If you explain the route i.e. "she went north over x, then headed west and flew over by y" that would help, though it's not a requirement.  It is guessing after all considering she may have taken off northeast or southeast from EGCC.
(gcmap.com)

Above is the shortest route, it's called a great circle route. This is what airlines try to follow as much as possible.

The possibilities:


They've mistaken the icy parts of Greenland and northern Canada for the Scandinavian countries1
They've mistaken the western Scottish fjords for Scandinavian fjords
They need new maps :)




On a great circle route, like a taut thread over a ball, the bearing changes. Roughly it'll be something like this:

Initial heading of NW for 1,000 nautical miles, WNW for another 1,000, then West for 2,700. That's a very rough visualization, because again along the route the heading changes, just like the thread.

The route takes you along the western coast of Scotland, across the Atlantic, passing over Iceland, then Greenland, then Canada, where Vancouver is.



1 Denmark, Norway, and Sweden compose Scandinavia according to the normal definition.