Indeed, but for a different reason than yours. The incident in question (CDG near miss, mixed languages identified as a contributing factor in investigation) is relevant here. One of the recommendations that came out of the BEA reports was that CDG ATC should be English only, in account of the safety implications. Everyone that mattered agreed with that at the time: Air France, CDG management, and ATC... unfortunately some obscure, minority ATC union (see the coincidence?) and some equally obscure right wing group objected, made a fuss, the politicians got involved and the rest is history.
LH2 I am still not convinced that dual-language ATC causes a greater risk than English ATC only. I had followed this "hot topic" for many years now, and incidents like near-misses, runway incursions etc. happen in both types of airspace. Would single language use have prevented the incidents that occurred in the dual-language airspace? Most of it is just an assumption. If the aviation world is getting safer through technology (stop bars, ASDE-X, TCAS etc.) why not accept a
different system?
Which takes me to
PJ2, your reply is well put, I was using the comparison to demonstrate the almost stubborn attitude that some pilots have: This/my way or you'll face certain death. I had also had interesting discussions about AP vs. handflying use and see similar (IMHO narrow-minded) type of arguments. But I don't want to hijack this thread more than I have already done.
Pilots from countries in which dual-language exists usually have no problem with dual language ATC than pilots from English only ATC countries (including Germany).
shortfuel your example of CJ's translation glitch shows that you and I understood what he was referring to. Maybe translation "glitches" are not as severe as one things?(Misspelled on purpose; but most would correctly assume that I mean "thinks" i.e. in the sense of believing).
It's going to need one heck of a translation agency, and willing hands with I.Q.s of 200, to SAFELY translate approach plates.
Wouldn't they just use approach plates from ASECNA?
This thread has shown that the French language topic originates from a union issue and is not really a safety issue. As I don't want to open a huge can of worms and discuss union issues, this thread has additionally shown how hostile the French language in aviation is on pprune: On the first page, emotions were running high and it sounded that KLM pilots would have to learn French, then the almost classic French issue of dual language ATC was brought up. As most information given by others was nothing really new, it shows that is mainly a repetition of French bashing in classic pprune tradition. Do you really thin
k the (negative) reaction would have been the same if
Me Myself would be a pilot for COPA or TACA instead of Air France? I highly doubt it. It's the history of previous and current animosities that stirs up emotions.
EDIT:
@LH2: Do you have a copy of the incident report regarding the near-miss at CDG? (English or French it doesn't matter
)