Oh yes, this kind of thing happens to me regularly: in India, the Canary Islands, the Middle East.......Usually after adding some add-on scenery, but quite a few times for no apparent reason at all.

I assure you that reinstalling the game is the easiest option. In my experience, after a while the game gets so messed up with errors, there is no real alternative, unless you want to spend a few days finding out what is wrong. I reinstall every few months or so.

However, if you have a lot of add-on aircraft, gauges, sounds, scenery etc., you might consider saving those files first. Check them (if possible) and reinstall them with care, as you might reinstall the problem as well.

PGW

Flown all over the US West (FS2002), never any problems like that.  If you reinstall, back up your add ons first, then do a proper uninstall.  I think the uninstall will not remove add on files, but rather the original stuff only, then do another installation and check to see what's what before you spend time re-doing your add-ons.