Originally Posted by
tdracer
To be fair - there are two definitions of "ton" - 1,000 kilo or 2,000 pounds. There is a 10% difference between the 'pound ton' and the 'metric ton'. Most people on this side of the pond think in pound tons, not metric tons, so ATC may have wanted to clarify.
Yep, ton and tonne are homophones, not that there is anything wrong with that.
And the BA pilot said runway 08 instead of runway 8, surprised the PPRuNe R/T police here didn't go after him for the miscue.