diff --git a/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.cxx b/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.cxx
index 24de0fbd3..17937f926 100644
--- a/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.cxx
+++ b/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.cxx
@@ -1350,6 +1350,14 @@ void NavDataCache::updatePosition(PositionedID item, const SGGeod &pos)
   sqlite3_bind_double(d->setAirportPos, 3, pos.getLatitudeDeg());
   sqlite3_bind_double(d->setAirportPos, 4, pos.getElevationM());
   
+// bug 905; the octree leaf may change here, but the leaf may already be
+// loaded, and caching its children. (Either the old or new leaf!). Worse,
+// we may be called here as a result of loading one of those leaf's children.
+// instead of dealing with all those possibilites, such as modifying
+// the in-memory leaf's STL child container, we simply leave the runtime
+// structures alone. This is fine providing items do no move very far, since
+// all the spatial searches ultimately use the items' real cartesian position,
+// which was updated above.
   Octree::Leaf* octreeLeaf = Octree::global_spatialOctree->findLeafForPos(cartPos);
   sqlite3_bind_int64(d->setAirportPos, 5, octreeLeaf->guid());
   
diff --git a/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.hxx b/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.hxx
index 01cc20bdd..069ffa907 100644
--- a/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.hxx
+++ b/src/Navaids/NavDataCache.hxx
@@ -139,8 +139,6 @@ public:
   
   /**
    * Modify the position of an existing item.
-   * Use with care, since loaded instances will not be updated (at present -
-   * this behaviour could in theorey be improved)
    */
   void updatePosition(PositionedID item, const SGGeod &pos);
   
diff --git a/src/Navaids/PositionedOctree.cxx b/src/Navaids/PositionedOctree.cxx
index 479ee99c8..4f342a824 100644
--- a/src/Navaids/PositionedOctree.cxx
+++ b/src/Navaids/PositionedOctree.cxx
@@ -67,22 +67,6 @@ void Leaf::visit(const SGVec3d& aPos, double aCutoff,
   
   for (; it != end; ++it) {
     FGPositioned* p = cache->loadById(it->second);
-    if (!intersects(_box, p->cart())) {
-        // see http://code.google.com/p/flightgear-bugs/issues/detail?id=905
-      
-      SG_LOG(SG_GENERAL, SG_WARN, "XXXXXXXXX bad spatial index for " << it->second
-             << "; " << p->ident() << " of type " <<
-             FGPositioned::nameForType(p->type()));
-      SG_LOG(SG_GENERAL, SG_WARN, "\tgeodetic location:" << p->geod());
-      SG_LOG(SG_GENERAL, SG_WARN, "\tcartesian location:" << p->cart());
-      
-      SG_LOG(SG_GENERAL, SG_WARN, "leaf box:" <<
-             _box.getMin() << " x " << _box.getMax());
-      
-      throw sg_exception("Bad spatial index data");
-    }
-    
-    
     double d = dist(aPos, p->cart());
     if (d > aCutoff) {
       continue;