English only........Please!!!!
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English only........Please!!!!
Please forgive me if this was previously posted on the boards. It was forwarded to me. I know it's dated 24/07/01, but this issue needs to be brought out into the open, and the French must comply!!!!!
FRENCH
TUESDAY JULY 24 2001
Pilot killed after message confusion
BY BEN WEBSTER, TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
FRENCH accident investigators have called on their own country to accept English as the sole universal language of aviation after the death of a British pilot who was confused by radio messages.
Jon Andrew, the co-pilot, died when the wing of a passenger jet travelling at 170mph ripped through the cockpit of his cargo plane on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The captain, Gary Grant, who was sitting beside him, was seriously injured.
The British pilots failed to understand an air traffic controller who, speaking in French, cleared the other plane for take-off on the same runway. Mr Andrew strayed on to the runway at another entry point in his Streamline turboprop, not realising that an Air Liberté jet carrying 155 Spanish football fans was speeding towards him.
The incident in May last year came within a split-second of being a major disaster. The Air Liberté pilot saw the Luton-bound British plane seconds before impact and aborted take-off.
Unlike most other European countries, France has refused to switch to using English exclusively in communications between controllers and pilots. Only a month before the accident, Air France had suspended plans to make English obligatory at its Paris hub after fierce opposition from pilots and politicians.
British pilots have frequently complained that the French practice of using both languages compromises safety.
The Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA), France’s accident investigation body, said that the British crew’s inability to understand the instruction in French had helped to cause the accident. The BEA recommended that the French civil aviation authority, the DGAC, should consider using only English for air traffic control at its major airports.
Cockpit recorders revealed that the Paris controller who used French to tell the Air Liberté jet to take off switched to English to tell the British crew to line up and wait as “number two”. The controller thought the planes were on the same entry point, but they were at different slipways and neither could see the other until seconds before the collision.The BEA said that the British captain was clearly confused because he can be heard asking his co-pilot twice: “Where is number one (the aircraft cleared to take off first).” If he had understood French he would probably have realised that an Air Liberté plane had just been told to take off from the same runway.
A DGAC spokesman said: “The law says that the French administration must speak in French and there is no obligation to use English by air traffic controllers in France. They can use French with French pilots and, of course, English with international pilots who do not speak French.” He said the BEA recommendation would be considered but it was impossible to say when France might be ready to act on it.
Mr Andrew’s widow, Karen, from Northamptonshire, said: “I would welcome any steps that prevent this from happening again.” She said that her husband, who had sold his business to fulfil his ambition to become a pilot, had not understood French.
Under guidelines set down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), English is recommended as the common language of aviation. Countries are allowed to opt out and use their native language with their pilots if they consider it safe. France and Russia are among a handful of countries who take advantage of the lack of a binding regulation enforcing the use of English.
FRENCH
FRENCH TUESDAY JULY 24 2001
Pilot killed after message confusion
BY BEN WEBSTER, TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
FRENCH accident investigators have called on their own country to accept English as the sole universal language of aviation after the death of a British pilot who was confused by radio messages.
Jon Andrew, the co-pilot, died when the wing of a passenger jet travelling at 170mph ripped through the cockpit of his cargo plane on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The captain, Gary Grant, who was sitting beside him, was seriously injured.
The British pilots failed to understand an air traffic controller who, speaking in French, cleared the other plane for take-off on the same runway. Mr Andrew strayed on to the runway at another entry point in his Streamline turboprop, not realising that an Air Liberté jet carrying 155 Spanish football fans was speeding towards him.
The incident in May last year came within a split-second of being a major disaster. The Air Liberté pilot saw the Luton-bound British plane seconds before impact and aborted take-off.
Unlike most other European countries, France has refused to switch to using English exclusively in communications between controllers and pilots. Only a month before the accident, Air France had suspended plans to make English obligatory at its Paris hub after fierce opposition from pilots and politicians.
British pilots have frequently complained that the French practice of using both languages compromises safety.
The Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA), France’s accident investigation body, said that the British crew’s inability to understand the instruction in French had helped to cause the accident. The BEA recommended that the French civil aviation authority, the DGAC, should consider using only English for air traffic control at its major airports.
Cockpit recorders revealed that the Paris controller who used French to tell the Air Liberté jet to take off switched to English to tell the British crew to line up and wait as “number two”. The controller thought the planes were on the same entry point, but they were at different slipways and neither could see the other until seconds before the collision.The BEA said that the British captain was clearly confused because he can be heard asking his co-pilot twice: “Where is number one (the aircraft cleared to take off first).” If he had understood French he would probably have realised that an Air Liberté plane had just been told to take off from the same runway.
A DGAC spokesman said: “The law says that the French administration must speak in French and there is no obligation to use English by air traffic controllers in France. They can use French with French pilots and, of course, English with international pilots who do not speak French.” He said the BEA recommendation would be considered but it was impossible to say when France might be ready to act on it.
Mr Andrew’s widow, Karen, from Northamptonshire, said: “I would welcome any steps that prevent this from happening again.” She said that her husband, who had sold his business to fulfil his ambition to become a pilot, had not understood French.
Under guidelines set down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), English is recommended as the common language of aviation. Countries are allowed to opt out and use their native language with their pilots if they consider it safe. France and Russia are among a handful of countries who take advantage of the lack of a binding regulation enforcing the use of English.
FRENCH
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This problem is not limited to France. French is regularly spoken on a number of Canadian sectors. I have nothing against the French or the use of their language but the use of more than one language on any ATC frequency must be bad for situational awareness and therefore poses a potential flight safety hazard.
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Please forgive me if this was previously posted on the boards.
Use of French at CDG caused crash is six pagesw long and dying away ... better to revive it than start a new one?
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SERGEI BORISOV: US MISSIONARINESS’ PLANE DOWNED BECAUSE OF POOR ENGLISH
As has been reported earlier, a CIA crew flying a narcotics surveillance mission over the Amazon misidentified a small aircraft carrying a family of U.S. missionaries as a possible drug smuggling operation, prompting the Peruvian air force to shoot down the plane. The attack killed Veronica Bowers, 35, a missionary with the Baptist group, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity. It has just become known that they died because of the Peruvian officer’s poor English.
Since 1995, the Peruvians with the assistance of the US military have shot, forced down or strafed more 38 drug-running aircraft and seized more than a dozen on the ground, according to U.S. officials. None of these incidents were known to involve innocent civilians, until now. This time, the CIA crew members were aboard a small two-engine surveillance jet on patrol at 9:43 a.m. Friday when they notified their base - which U.S. officials refused to identify - that their sophisticated radar was tracking a small aircraft that had crossed three or four miles into Brazilian territory.
The Americans radioed a second report 12 minutes later, as the unidentified aircraft reentered Peruvian airspace. At that point, following standard procedures, the Americans requested that the Peruvian air force officer in charge at an air base at Pucallpa determine whether the plane was on an approved flight plan. Under procedures approved by the commanding general of the Peruvian Air Force 6th Territorial Air Region, the Peruvian air force then launched a fighter jet to visually identify the aircraft, verify its registry, attempt to establish radio contact and, if necessary, force it to land or shoot it down.
The Peruvian lieutenant colonel aboard the U.S. plane then tried to communicate in Spanish with the aircraft over three separate radio frequencies but heard no response. The Americans did not try to communicate in English. The American pilots start to doubt the plane they were tailing was really stuffed with drugs. One of them said they might be making a big mistake, and the other agreed with him. When they asked the Peruvian officer whether he was sure there were “banditos” aboard the plane, he answered just “yes, OK.” It appeared later that the officer had a very poor command of English and did not understand the American pilots. The latter, in turn, knew only several words in Spanish.
The Peruvian officer then quickly requested permission from his commander on the ground to order the fighter to move to "Phase 3"--to fire his weapons with the goal of disabling the Cessna. If that failed, the plane could be shot down. So, at 10:43 a.m., an hour after the plane was spotted by the CIA crew, Peruvian military authorities on the ground authorized the shoot-down..
The lingual barrier thus caused a tragedy over the Amazon. Although the above anti-drug programme initiated jointly by Peruvians and Americans proved effective in general, it cannot be ruled out that there might be aircrafts unrelated to drug trafficking among those downed.
As has been reported earlier, a CIA crew flying a narcotics surveillance mission over the Amazon misidentified a small aircraft carrying a family of U.S. missionaries as a possible drug smuggling operation, prompting the Peruvian air force to shoot down the plane. The attack killed Veronica Bowers, 35, a missionary with the Baptist group, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity. It has just become known that they died because of the Peruvian officer’s poor English.
Since 1995, the Peruvians with the assistance of the US military have shot, forced down or strafed more 38 drug-running aircraft and seized more than a dozen on the ground, according to U.S. officials. None of these incidents were known to involve innocent civilians, until now. This time, the CIA crew members were aboard a small two-engine surveillance jet on patrol at 9:43 a.m. Friday when they notified their base - which U.S. officials refused to identify - that their sophisticated radar was tracking a small aircraft that had crossed three or four miles into Brazilian territory.
The Americans radioed a second report 12 minutes later, as the unidentified aircraft reentered Peruvian airspace. At that point, following standard procedures, the Americans requested that the Peruvian air force officer in charge at an air base at Pucallpa determine whether the plane was on an approved flight plan. Under procedures approved by the commanding general of the Peruvian Air Force 6th Territorial Air Region, the Peruvian air force then launched a fighter jet to visually identify the aircraft, verify its registry, attempt to establish radio contact and, if necessary, force it to land or shoot it down.
The Peruvian lieutenant colonel aboard the U.S. plane then tried to communicate in Spanish with the aircraft over three separate radio frequencies but heard no response. The Americans did not try to communicate in English. The American pilots start to doubt the plane they were tailing was really stuffed with drugs. One of them said they might be making a big mistake, and the other agreed with him. When they asked the Peruvian officer whether he was sure there were “banditos” aboard the plane, he answered just “yes, OK.” It appeared later that the officer had a very poor command of English and did not understand the American pilots. The latter, in turn, knew only several words in Spanish.
The Peruvian officer then quickly requested permission from his commander on the ground to order the fighter to move to "Phase 3"--to fire his weapons with the goal of disabling the Cessna. If that failed, the plane could be shot down. So, at 10:43 a.m., an hour after the plane was spotted by the CIA crew, Peruvian military authorities on the ground authorized the shoot-down..
The lingual barrier thus caused a tragedy over the Amazon. Although the above anti-drug programme initiated jointly by Peruvians and Americans proved effective in general, it cannot be ruled out that there might be aircrafts unrelated to drug trafficking among those downed.
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One or two things "Do not compute"
The CIA have been flying these missions since 1995... and NOBODY can understand the pilot/observer interface?
The 7 month old baby?? of a Baptist woman[in "Catholic" Brazil?] was on board.. Why?
C'mon, let's have some REAL news and/or rumours
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy
The CIA have been flying these missions since 1995... and NOBODY can understand the pilot/observer interface?
The 7 month old baby?? of a Baptist woman[in "Catholic" Brazil?] was on board.. Why?
C'mon, let's have some REAL news and/or rumours
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy
