Air France English Miscue Prompts Hijack Alert

[Airbubba]

Here's the daily false alarm.... .. .______________________________________________. .. .March 13, 2002. .. .France Duped on False Hijacking. .. .By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. . . . . .Filed at 1:15 p.m. ET. .. .PARIS (AP) -- An air traffic controller apparently misunderstood an airline pilot's message about a fire and issued a hijack alert that sent fighter jets to the skies and France's prime minister rushing to his office, officials said Wednesday.. .. .An Air France Airbus A320 was headed from Toulouse to Paris on Tuesday evening when the pilot warned ground control of "fire on board,'' said officials at France's civil aviation authority, DGAC.. .. .The air traffic controller thought the pilot said "five men on board,'' and concluded the plane was being hijacked, according to LCI television.. .. .The pilot quickly found two warplanes at his side, and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin hurried back to his office expecting have a hijacking on his hands, LCI said.. .. .The plane, with 148 passengers on board, returned to Toulouse and the passengers were transferred to other flights.. .. .DGAC spokeswoman Edith Tartry said it was too early to say why the alert was given, but she acknowledged that it was probably a misunderstanding.. .. .The pilot and air traffic controller were speaking in English as required by international air traffic regulations.. .. ."We have opened an investigation but it is still unclear exactly what happened,'' Tartry said.. .. .Air France spokeswoman Veronique Brachet said preliminary findings indicated the smoke came from a transformer and did not pose a risk of fire. "The pilot followed all correct procedures,'' she said.

[Bosco II]

I find it very hard to believe, that the French pilot and controller were speaking english.

[penguin]

There's their justification to use French only!

[wallabie]

Bosco, it's true since it's in the paper !!. .You gents are awfully hard to please. When we stubbornly stick to French it is regarded as plain and dangerous arrogance and when we give it a go with english in the most stressfull situation........wwwwwwwwwwwwwwell ziss obviously leads to bbbbbbbbbbbbigggggggg misunderrrrrrrrrrrrrstandings.. .In all fairness, it still hasn't been established wether it was the pilot who didn't express himself correctly or the controller who got a tad jumpy. . .May I be so bold as to ask for the benefit of the doubt ??. .Got it, maybe we should just shut up ! That would undoubtly make everybody happy.

[RichT]

"The pilot and air traffic controller were speaking in English as required by international air traffic regulations".. .. .International Air law permits English, French, Spanish and Russian and preference should be given to the predominant language i.e. Air France in France with an emergency = speak french.

[2Donkeys]

RichT - The languages you list are the ICAO languages approved for official documentation. They have nothing to do with RT language. . .. .Normally this will be be English, and/or the native language(s) of the state, depending on the nature of the station concerned.

[Pirate]

Small point of information. There are now five official languages used by ICAO. Arabic was added a few years ago.

[pesket]

I believe the SOPs at Air France state that in case of an emergency, it should be dealt in english for the other flights around to be aware of a mayday situation in progress.

[floigl]

Another information.. .We are not required to use English in pilot to ATC. .communication but "phraseology" as deffined in Rules of the Air and Air Traffic Services ( PAN-RAC).. .I'm sure that if French were using phraseology in . .everyday communication and Franch in emergencies no. .one would say a single word and any unfortunate missunderstanding would be avoided.

[wallabie]

You mean that we have your blessing to R/T in french when in the poo ?? Mighty generous of you kind gents !. .It might save the tax payers a few bucks to by not having to scramble the French air force and distract the Prime minister from his daily chores, actually mainly campaining these days. Who needs colateral dammage on top of confusion ?. .Let's hope that we don't get " 5 men in the cockpit ". for real, we might get :. ." Doooooooooo not vorrrrrrrry, theirrrrrrrr only having firrrrrrrrrrre in zeeeee cockpit ". . . . <small>[ 15 March 2002, 16:42: Message edited by: wallabie ]</small>

[hobie]

I've only listened in to one real hijack (a U.S. carrier landed in SNN some years ago with a gunman in the cockpit) ...... I remember the Tower going to extraordinary lengths to confirm every statement that came from the aircraft..... for example (and these are actual words from the Pilot) ..... .. .PILOT ..... the gentleman has a gun pointed at my head . .. .Tower ..... I understand .... the gentleman has a gun pointed at your head . .. .The conversation went on in this fashion in very simple statements from the pilot with every one being slowly and clearly repeated by the Tower so there could be no confusion. Eventually the guy gave up his Firearm and the situation was resolved with no harm to passengers or crew but I always remember the clear/slow statements with repeats to ensure that everyone involved was fully and accurately aware of the situation.

[wallabie]

Well Hobie. .People here are slightly, well...........how can I put it tactfully ? ......volatile ? Yeah, that sounds about right !

[flyblue]

The facts are not as stated. What happened is that after an AF A320 (FL220) declared a mayday specifiyng "fire on board", another aircraft (unidentified) declared an emergency at FL260 and added "five people on board".