Abstract: An error detection and correction system locates and corrects double errors in a received data block word digitally encoded in a Reed-Solomon code (n,K) as coefficient terms of an n-order codeword polynomial in the form ##EQU1## where the coefficients are powers of the primitive a of a Galois field, which codeword is divisible by a code generator polynomial in the form of a product of a plurality of different factors in the form (x+a.sup.i). Four syndrome signals are derived, each corresponding to a respective first order syndrome equal to the remainder upon dividing a received data block word by a respective factor. An error locator responsive to the four syndrome signals derives a reference signal corresponding to the position h of a reference term in the received data block word equally spaced relative to the two terms containing errors, and a relative position signal k corresponding to the number of terms by which the terms containing the errors are spaced from the reference term.