Originally Posted by
limahotel
It is quite normal in Russia to mix up the cleared height due to poor radio and inappropriate phraseology (giving cleared height, QFE and frequency for the next sector, all in the same clearance is normal in Russia). However, in this case, the crew asked for height confirmation.
Yesterday, it was very windy in SVO as well, WS on final with a few go-arounds. Poor guys had the crappy weather during the night after a four hour flight.
Er, height is referenced to QFE, altitude to QNH.
They were cleared to 600m on QFE, listen to the tape, but only read back the QNH, they certainly did not pick up the error from what can be heard on the ATC recordings.