Originally Posted by
Uplinker
Thanks for the info
Not wishing to start an argument, but the ITM controller did mix it up. According to the BEA report, ATC got it wrong twice, by saying one zero one one in English when speaking with two English speaking aircraft, but got the QNH correct when speaking in French to a French speaking crew.
Sorry was not clear when I said no controller will mix up the two, I was taking about the 2 different phaseologies,( digit per digit in English and full numbers in French) Indeed the controller here mixed up 1011 with 1001 but a possible explanation ( speculating I do not have more info on this case) is that it could be due to what we call brain automatism or brain cloud. A well known phenomena, which we find often in call sign confusions . When faced with stress caused by a perticular fact or event , the brain reverts to a similar event in the past, you end up automatically saying things that are not what you meant. Good examples of this is pilots facing an emerncy reverting to an old call sign or , the call sign they used in the simulator when execrcising that emergency. ( e. the Happag Lloyd A310 accident in Vienna , or more recently the BA777 accident in Heathrow ) In all cases the individual is not aware, even afterwards that he/she did this. People are extremely surprised when they listen to their transmissions on the tape.. The only mitigation for this is the 4 eyes/ears principle. The person sitting besides is supposed to pick up these discrepancies .