Uplinker
Yes, she starts to sound concerned and trips over herself a couple of times but faced with EVA015 being in completely the wrong place, approaching the AC788 and ignoring all her instructions, who wouldn't? Having got AC788 safely out of the way, she climbs EVA015 as she sees he is heading for Mount Wilson. She is not up to the extremely high standard of UK London TMA controllers, but the instructions she issues sound clear to me, and I would not characterize her performance as "atrocious", far from it.
I don't think that at any point the pilots were "ignoring" her instructions. Misunderstanding, misinterpreting or NOT understanding, maybe... but at no point was the controller being ignored.
Atrocious is a strong word, I agree, however.... Both parties were operating within the bounds of their respective licences. The EVA pilot must have at least ICAO level 4, if not his flight plan out of his home country wouldn't have been approved, the controller is also qualified and was operating under the rules and norms of her own country..... And therein we find the problem.
It is largely irrelevant that that clip clips the initial instruction from the controller as the controller had a final chance to spot the left turn was being initiated when the pilot readback "Turn left heading 180". RT communications should be a similar process as establishing who has control control... I have control > you have control > I have control...... in this sense should be.... Pass instruction > Readback > Listen to readback to assure that the readback was correct and that the pilot has understood the message.... or to assure that your first transmission was correct. So depending on the initial message, what we should have had here should have been either...
ATC: turn left heading 180
EVA: Turn left heading 180
or
ATC: turn left heading 180
Eva: turn left heading 180
ATC: Eva, Correction, turn right heading 180
EVA: Turn right heading 180
or
ATC: Turn right heading 180
Eva: Turn left heading 180
ATC: Negative EVA, I say again, turn Right heading 180
ATC: Turn right heading 180
Situation 1, would have led to a situation similar to what happened, but would have been resolved faster with the continued use of standard RT.
Situation 2 would have been a non-event.
Situation 3 would have been a non-event.
What will need to be addressed as an outcome of this event is whether or not the English Language Exam in the pilots state is sufficiently good fr international operations and whether or not US RT is sufficient for foreign pilots operating in the USA. It would also be worth noting the amount of time since the pilots took their English tests and whether or not sufficient time had passed since any language training was given in which the pilots would have suffered a decline in their language skills. However, I am still willing to say that the major factor here was the American system, and that further cross cultural training and a tightening of the US standard RT system MUST be given, whilst I think that this must be rolled out at all stations across the nation, it should DEFINATELY be improved upon at all centers and at all TMAs of international airports. This wasn't necessarily the direct fault of the individuals involved.