- •Tapescripts
- •Introduction
- •Aviation English
- •Part I English in Aviation communication
- •Dreams take flight
- •Concorde - end of an era?
- •Deal could revive supersonic flights
- •Airbus 350 cleared for take-off
- •International aviation and space shows
- •The flight crew
- •The Flight Deck
- •Reducing fuel burn on the md-11
- •Sukhoi Superjet 100
- •Air Traffic Control
- •Air traffic controllers
- •Controller-pilot data link communication
- •Free flight
- •Recommendations for air traffic controllers
- •At the Airport
- •A modern airport
- •A Variety of Airport jobs
- •Controlling the planes
- •Airport transport and vehicle
- •Truck collapse leads to delay
- •Welcome aboard
- •Recommendations for pilots
- •Cabin staff
- •Services on board singapore Airlines launches Connexion-based live tv
- •Onboard cellphone
- •Bad passenger behaviour
- •Plane diverted after passenger attacks crew
- •1. First Aid
- •Medical care in air
- •Doctor’s recommendations
- •Potential health risks for pilots
- •Aerodrome forecasts
- •Flying forecast
- •Meteorological hazards
- •Volcanic ash
- •Wind shear and turbulence alerts at Hong Kong International Airport
- •Bird strike hazard
- •Border collies prove effective in controlling wildlife at airports
- •Cabin safety
- •Flight hazards
- •The effect of fatigue on performance and safety
- •Decision-making and Team performance
- •Emergency landing
- •European inspection programme targets aircraft during airport turnarounds
- •Turnaround
- •Aircraft security. The threat of terrorism
- •Hijackers escape
- •Security alert
- •Collision course
- •The runway collision at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport
- •Kegworth crash
- •Flying fur
- •Steps to eliminate runway incursions
- •Recommendations for pilots and controllers
- •The taxi phase should be treated as a critical phase of flight
- •General phraseology and guidance in the uk
- •Recommendations for Pilots:
- •How to be a safe pilot
- •What communication skills mean
- •Plane's mayday call missed due to pilot's poor English
- •Effective Communication
- •Recommendations for pilots and controllers
- •Linguistic problems of aviation english
- •Confusingly related words
- •Part II. English for everyday communication
- •A pilot by passengers’ eyes
- •Flight attendants
What communication skills mean
Aviate, navigate, communicate. That is the traditional order of priories for pilots.
Today it is the same, but different. Aviation and navigation have changed. The aviate/navigate part is very nearly synonymous in highly automated aircraft operating in precision area navigation airspace.
Communication is the least-changed part of the job. It is not automated at all, but with increasing traffic densities demanding more accurate aircraft control, communication is becoming more important. In the future datalink communications will take over all the routine work that voice communications must do today. But it will take at least eight to 10 years to achieve this, so voice communication is going to be the main system for air/ground and air/air co-operation for a long time.
Voice contact will have to deal with all the non-standard or unexpected events. That means emergencies, calls for assistance, changes forced by weather. Actually, voice communication has always had to do this and still does. But the standard radio telephony vocabulary all pilots have to learn is insufficient to deal with non-standard situations, and fatal accidents have happened when pilots have been unable to describe their situation, understand an air traffic control problem and outline the help they need.
ICAO considered the previous standard, requiring understanding and expression of only the approximately 200 words or phrases used in official ATC terminology, no longer enough. ICAO defined tests of English communications skills that would demonstrate pilots and controllers could do more than handle simple ATC messages, having the ability to describe and understand non-standard or unusual situations or requirements. So pilots and air traffic controllers must now learn workable English, the language that international aviators should share.
63 Exercise 2
Plane's mayday call missed due to pilot's poor English
Air traffic controllers at Heathrow airport failed to understand two distress calls from an Italian airliner carrying 104 people because the pilot’s English pronunciation was poor.
The Alitalia jet suffered a near complete loss of its navigational equipment in its final approach to London.
The control tower did not understand a mayday message from the plane's captain and did not initiate usual procedures, which include putting the airport fire service on alert and clearing the runway.
Although the plane, which flew from Milan, landed safely the incident is likely to concern about the quality of English spoken in cockpits.
While circling the pilot transmitted an emergency message known as a "pan-pan" call and reported the failure. But air traffic controllers did not understand until another aircraft intervened. The pilot had to land manually and transmitted a more serious mayday call asking for priority.
The report said: "The mayday element of this call was not heard by the controller. This was probably due to a combination of the commander not announcing the mayday using the expected protocol and his heavily accented English."
64 Exercise 3