An accident occurred when an aircraft was cleared to descend:
ATC: "Descend two four hundred..."
Pilot heard: "descend to four hundred" = CFIT.
(Germany I believe)
At the risk of exposing the nitpicky side of me ... wotsat? whaddya mean "only side of you we see" ...
The words were actually "descend two four zero zero". "Two four zero zero ft" used to be the official phraseology in the UK for 2400 ft until fairly recently (the change was possibly triggered by that). I can't imagine anyone using "two four hundred".
The
accident occured in Malaysia, to a Flying Tigers 747. To echo FFF's sentiment, the pilot should check that whatever is heard is sensible, and quite what possessed the crew to descend to 400 ft more than 20 miles out is unclear.