Given the new things being discovered about bat intelligence- at least in one species from Egypt- they cannot be sure bats cannot fly without echolocation.
Bats in this study are able to remember fruit trees , when they are worth visiting or not, and if you can remember and think in advance about a given location like a fruit bearing tree, it would be surprising to me that they couldn’t fly by memory alone.
In addition, bats aren’t necessarily blind. They have eyes. Some species can see, and how well probably varies by species.
They may also have senses as birds do for detecting the electromagnetic field, etc. Some birds can actually navigate by the stars and position of the sun. We know so little about bats relative to birds that a person would be foolish to say they are sure of everything these animals are capable of.
That could be by scent.
Fruit bats are closely related to primates so they’re probably pretty smart, although that’s not the type of bat in question here.
Fruit bats DO NOT use echolocation.🤔