diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 60ba9d5311..5161697276 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+5586.	[bug]		An invalid direction field in a LOC record resulted in
+			an INSIST failure. [GL #2499]
+
 5585.	[func]		Implementations of memory contexts and memory pools were
 			refactored to reduce lock contention for shared memory
 			contexts by replacing mutexes with atomic operations.
diff --git a/doc/notes/notes-current.rst b/doc/notes/notes-current.rst
index 9fdc8fd32b..508fbb0226 100644
--- a/doc/notes/notes-current.rst
+++ b/doc/notes/notes-current.rst
@@ -48,3 +48,6 @@ Bug Fixes
   of sending a proper response back.  Rollback setting the IP_DONTFRAG on the
   UDP sockets that we enabled during the DNS Flag Day 2020 to fix this issue.
   [GL #2487]
+
+- An invalid direction field (not one of 'N'/'S' or 'E'/'W') in a LOC record
+  triggered an INSIST failure. [GL #2499]
diff --git a/lib/dns/rdata/generic/loc_29.c b/lib/dns/rdata/generic/loc_29.c
index 5ab231cb93..478723ae6c 100644
--- a/lib/dns/rdata/generic/loc_29.c
+++ b/lib/dns/rdata/generic/loc_29.c
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ loc_getcoordinate(isc_lex_t *lexer, unsigned long *dp, unsigned long *mp,
 	 * Direction.
 	 */
 	RETERR(get_direction(lexer, &token, directions, &direction));
-	if (direction == -1) {
+	if (direction == 0) {
 		RETERR(DNS_R_SYNTAX);
 	}
 done:
diff --git a/lib/dns/tests/rdata_test.c b/lib/dns/tests/rdata_test.c
index 9cf32c2849..877660f67d 100644
--- a/lib/dns/tests/rdata_test.c
+++ b/lib/dns/tests/rdata_test.c
@@ -2017,6 +2017,7 @@ loc(void **state) {
 		TEXT_INVALID("90 0 1 S 180 W 0"),
 		TEXT_INVALID("90 S 180 1 W 0"),
 		TEXT_INVALID("90 S 180 0 1 W 0"),
+		TEXT_INVALID("0 0 0.000 E 0 0 0.000 E -0.95m 1m 10000m 10m"),
 		TEXT_VALID("0 0 0.000 N 0 0 0.000 E -0.95m 1m 10000m 10m"),
 		TEXT_VALID("0 0 0.000 N 0 0 0.000 E -0.05m 1m 10000m 10m"),
 		TEXT_VALID("0 0 0.000 N 0 0 0.000 E -100000.00m 1m 10000m 10m"),