Can Ryanair Pilots speak English?

[Chuffbaby]

I have just returned from a European flight and whilst listening on the main ATC frequency across northern France and the southern UK, I was struck by the number of missed radio calls from Ryanair aircraft. Often the controller was calling three or four times before establishing contact. There was also a point at which the UK controller could not make himself understood when trying to establish the previous frequency which the Ryanair aircraft had joined from. Eventually the other pilot (presumably a native English speaker) came onto the radio and took over further communications.
My question is - are Ryanair employing a large percentage of non-English speaking crews and if so, have they established whether they can actually communicate to the required standard in an ATC environment?

[captjns]

I have just returned from a European flight and whilst listening on the main ATC frequency across northern France and the southern UK, I was struck by the number of missed radio calls from Ryanair aircraft. Often the controller was calling three or four times before establishing contact. There was also a point at which the UK controller could not make himself understood when trying to establish the previous frequency which the Ryanair aircraft had joined from. Eventually the other pilot (presumably a native English speaker) came onto the radio and took over further communications.
My question is - are Ryanair employing a large percentage of non-English speaking crews and if so, have they established whether they can actually communicate to the required standard in an ATC environment?

Ryanair sensitive are we?:hmm: Lets think about that question, and you can probably answer it yourself.... What is the required language to be written, spoken, and understood by pilots flying international routes? Did you say english? Good.

Have compassion. Could have been a trainee in the right seat.

Afterall... do all of the masters of the english language and linguists fly for EZ Jet, Globe Span, British Airways, etc.?... or your airline?;)

[captjns]

Hey... the bulk of passengers flying on these low cost carriers don't understand a lick of english either.

But on the flip side of the coin regarding the RYR intrepid aviator, some controllers across the English Channel and North Sea should swallow the cheese and bread in their mouths before speaking. Or is that how they normally speak? Communicating with some of these controllers is a real adventure in phonics.

[Bearcat]

Funny this thread should come up.....last night north bound from Spain I heard a lot of FR flights with strong broken english accents and yes there were missed calls. I don't have an axe to grind with leo's recruiters or the IAA who let these folk in. As a Capt I think there is an element of safety erosion in the cockpit if ones F/O has difficulty understanding / speaking english. The work load increases dramatically in the LHS keeping the show on the road with some one who just knows phrases like gear up/dn etc, knows what the QRH looks like, but there after looks at you with a vacant stare when an operational issue arises. Not want you want when its all happening.
Thankfully I work with an outfit that we are all fluent in english.:ok:

[hawkwing]

There have been alot of RYR missed calls in the last few weeks, this is mainly due to the fact there are now a lot of wet lease operating RYR,s routes.
Hence while they sit looking out to the great beyond they are not used to answering to Ryanair xxx,
They are accustomed to hearing, Futura xxx Eirejet xxx etc.....
As far as poor R.T. goes, it is not just a RYR problem, it is an epidemic that is progressing company wide.

[Pelican]

I would second what Hawkwing says. I have myself been called out on several occassions to cover a Ryanair or Easyjet flight, as a wet lease, and despite our best efforts and our sincere attempts to listen out carefully, we still missed two or three calls.

And then there was the answering back with our own companies callsign at the end of course....

[ukatco_535]

As a controller in the london TMA at West Drayton I can put my hand on my heart and say they are no worse than any other airline. In fact, as we might expect them to be worse because of the amount of bashing that goes on here, it actually makes them pretty good in relative terms.

I have personally noticed that the 'worlds favourite airline' seems to have more 'foreign' accents in the cockpit, and there has been a degradation in information passed and/or missed calls.

However, the above two airlines are not any better or worse than others on average.

Is this another piece of RYR bashing - in the same way that the 'nosewheel off the runway' incident in this forum has had people slagging RYR off, whereas the overrun by emerald in the same forum has elicited no such responses?

And before my credentials are called into question about whether I should comment, I appreciate that with other pilots, this may be a case of not wanting to be tarred with the same brush and is a case of professional standards within the industry; however in my opinion as a controller who has to deal with these and other pilots, there is not one airline that stands out above the rest in terms of high standards across the board.

In the same way, although pilots may think that certain ATC units are better as others, there are still ATCOs withgin those units who are below par.

[Jonty]

I'm afraid I can't answer from an ATC perspective, but I have flown Ryanair a lot and have also noticed the really poor English of some (particularly Eastern European) pilots.
For instance, on one flight to Girona, "Captain Sloberdan" announced the following
"Welcome to flight to Girona, today weather in Girona is ok, with windspeed of 2 hundred mile hour..." before telling us the route in reverse order, which was a little strange.
I have always found such announcements amusing, however, and never doubted the pilots ability to communicate with ATC at a satisfactory level - maybe I'm being naive?

What worries me is can the pilots communicate with each other when the **** hits the fan?!? if the chap can only just communicate with ATC how is he going to communicate with the FO or capt when things get interesting. Some one mentioned this was a factor in the Helios accident, don't know if thats true, but it does focus the mind somewhat.

I would say that this is an issue all airlines are facing not just Ryan.