News: English To Become Compulsory For Pilots World-Wide

Soon, pilots and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) will have to speak English for the first time in aviation history. English has been the language used throughout the industry for decades but until now no minimum standards have been set. This was news to me, since I already thought this was the standard and was followed by most around the globe.

The changes and standards, introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) last week, will affect several hundred thousand people world-wide. “It is believed that hundreds of lives have been lost in crashes caused by communication problems.”

English will be the language which all pilots and controllers will be expected to use at major international airports. This standard is because several aircraft can be on the same radio frequency and it is vital that pilots know what is going on around them. Exemption, however, may be given for smaller air strips where the potential for linguistic confusion does not arise.

Although native English speakers will not have to prove their competence, they have also been told by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to make sure they can be understood and refrain from “the use of idioms, colloquialisms and other jargon.”

“Two people were killed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when a French speaking crew taxied an aircraft to the same holding point as an aircraft in which the pilot spoke only English.” and many other examples are known.

Source Non-Mobile: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/...

Tags: ATC, Airlines, Pilots, Safety
Technorati Tags: ATC, Airlines, Pilots, Safety