with respect to language problems, the most important thing, whichever language we adopt, is to use standard phraseology.
Thankyou. Finally someone has put their finger on the real reason fo the Indian midair. It was not, as the program banged on about incessantly, solely due to the pilot not understanding English, another major contributing factor was the use of a flight level when issuing traffic information. This tragedy led to a change in SP to be used when giving traffic, ie
"Traffic 12 o'clock 1000 feet above "
and NOT
"Traffic 12 o'clock at FL140"
Why did the BBC not mention this? Brits being Brits I reckon, long live the Empire, the English language will conquer all.
The language issue has been thoroughly dealt with on another thread, but for what its worth, my opinion is this. Of course there has to be a single language of the skies worldwide. Its just common sense. I'm not arguing that English is the natural choice, I am not so full of blinding national pride. But in such a far reaching international environment everyone has to be able to understand everyone else. It just means that anybody working within the industry, pilots and controllers alike, need to be able to speak the chosen language, be it English, French, Spanish, whatever.
With regards to datalink, I am very sceptical. At Maastricht we are experimenting with CPDLC, a datalink system in the early stages of development. I cannot see, apart from a few instructions (freq change, squawk change) how it could be used in any busy environment. It takes the controllers attention away from his radar screen, it does not give pilots spatial awareness (at least using another language you could hear a call sign and maybe work out a level given to it), and as far as misunderstanding is concerned, how easy would it be to simply press the wrong button and accidentally issue the wrong FL? Ok I am prepared to give it a chance, but until the system proves me wrong this will remain my opinion.
With datalink an ATC computer can communicate 10 different speed constraints to 10 different aircraft in less than a second.
Right. And who can input those restrictions at that speed?
And what if the datalink software, perish the thought, failed? The controller is left with a very dangerous case of overcrowding to sort out. The whole point of datalink, from a safety perspective, is that it should not take over the job of a controller, the atco must at all times be able to use r/t to carry out the same job as the datalink.
Well it could - but that’s what TCAS is for. In any case, why do you find yourself needing to issue emergency avoiding action instructions in the first place?
Don't get me started on TCAS. To answer your ill thought out point, the last two times I have needed to give emergency avoiding action was solely due to
TCAS. False RA's which the pilot is obliged to act upon are the scurge of my life, especially when the a/c concerned climbs outside atc restrictions int opposite traffic which is seen by TCAS as less of a threat than the the traffic atc is keeping it clear of.
Enough said, I will watch the program again next week
