This threads is like a comet : comes back regularly every 5 years or so with same arguments /consequences.
"us" and " them villains" , pilots vs controllers, English vs French language on R/T, French " exceptions ", " right of strike". etc.
Since 5 years ago, nothing new. So sterile debate .
Just 2 (old) comments for the new here :
Re the MD80-Shorts collision in CDG in 2000 : the cause of this accident was not language but intersection take off badly authorized by ATC. What a common language could have done there was increase situation awareness that might have alerted one of the Shorts crew that someone else was cleared for take off on that same runway they mistakenly entering. One of the recommendations on that report asked for a single language in runway ops . Common sense .
The French ATC administration called for English only in CDG as a result from a specific date. After 2 days the French Pilots union of Air France objected strongly quoting safety issues , and on their pressure and that of Air France OPS , the " experiment" was cancelled. The CDG controllers had no problem, some AF and ex IT pilots did.
Secondly :
According to french communications regulations, if you are French you MUST speak French with French ATC
Not as categorical .. The actual text in the French AIP says that
"French language is (unless particular conditions like training for instance) used between a French pilot and a French controller "
There is no " must" and in practice , every pilot calling in English on the R/T will be answered in English, and this not only in France but nearly everywhere in the world.
Also using national languages is not prohibited by ICAO, on the contrary, it is just like the metric system. Something there since 1944 (Chicago Convention ) that no-one wants to challenge by fear of re-opening the Pandora box ( like the Oceanic FIR boundaries for instance ).
So banning French ( or Spanish, Russian ,etc..) on the R/T is not as simple as it looks and not really a Controller problem as we should be all level 4 by now..
