ATC accents

In article . com,
wrote:

The problem is compounded if English is not the native language of
either party. This was a factor in the Tenerife incident. It is bad
enough if only one side of the conversation is with a nonnative
English speaker.

I recall reading about a recent accident where the cockpit crew's
only common language was aviation English. I think it was the
depressurization one in Greece, although a quick check of Google News
didn't turn up anything.

Ok, Avweb had this:

http://www.avweb.com/newswire/11_37a.../190558-1.html

which references:

http://iht.com/articles/2005/09/06/news/crash.php

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

"Ramapriya" wrote

Have anyone of you had a problem with the accents of various ATC
chaps around the world?

We, at PanAm, didn't have all that much of a problem.

Bob Moore

In a previous article, Bob Moore said:
"Ramapriya" wrote
Have anyone of you had a problem with the accents of various ATC
chaps around the world?

We, at PanAm, didn't have all that much of a problem.

I deal with a lot of French Canadian accents, but I never have any trouble
understanding them. But that might just be because I grew up with them.

I heard a guy flying a Canadian reg plane with a thick hispanic accent the
other day, and I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, and he
seemed to be having trouble understanding the controllers. Fortunately it
was a good VFR day and so it didn't matter so much.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
With M$, as far as I'm aware, the stupidity comes bundled with the software.
-- Meg Thornton

"Bob Moore" wrote in message

We, at PanAm, didn't have all that much of a problem.


I'd be willing to bet that in the glory days of PanAm, many countries made
damn sure their best english speaker was on duty when you guys were
scheduled in. Hell, when I was in the mid-east in the AF, hundreds of
people from surrounding villages used to come to the airport 3 days a week
just to watch your 707 come and go.

"John Gaquin" wrote
I'd be willing to bet that in the glory days of PanAm, many
countries made damn sure their best english speaker was on duty
when you guys were scheduled in. Hell, when I was in the
mid-east in the AF, hundreds of people from surrounding villages
used to come to the airport 3 days a week just to watch your 707
come and go.

Ah yes...the glory days at PanAm. I joined PanAm toward the end
of those great times. The PanAm ticket office in any city served
as a quasi-embassy for those requiring assistance while traveling.
It was a real privelage for an African ruler to have his daughter
serve as a PanAm "stewardess". A PanAm I.D. card would get you
anything that you needed anywhere in the world. Great Days!!
Flying at PanAm was a life style, not just stick and rudder flying.

Bob Moore
PanAm 1967-1991 (retired)

Worst time I ever had was with a hotel operator in New Jersey. All
I was trying to do was make a reservation...

I believe they were talking about English speakers, not foreigners from
Joisey.


"Blanche" wrote in message
...
Worst time I ever had was with a hotel operator in New Jersey. All
I was trying to do was make a reservation...

"Blanche" wrote in message

Worst time I ever had was with a hotel operator in New Jersey. All
I was trying to do was make a reservation...


Fuggedaboudit!!

Blanche wrote:
All I was trying to do was make a reservation...

That's what you *thought* you were doing. What you were really doing was
interupting his TV show and trying to make him work.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

"Ramapriya" wrote in message

Have anyone of you had a problem with the accents of various ATC chaps
around the world?

Is this a trivial problem, considering the standard phraseology in use
in ATC communications, or can it lead to something worse?

The myriad accents are exactly why standardized phraseology is important in
international ops. I personally think a lot of folks get overly anal about
it in domestic use, but that's just my opinion.

There were some places I had to work at understanding ATC, but the only
place I had a real problem was Cairo. I have a devil of a time
understanding an Egyptian speaking English. Similar difficulty in other
areas of northeast Africa, but Cairo was the worst, for me. Another problem
of a different kind was in Saudi Arabia. Many of their controllers refused
to answer the radio for a female pilot. Welcome to the fourteenth century!

Quick story re standardized language: We used to fuel stop in Khabarovsk
enroute HKG-ANC. In the early 90s, we were among the first Americans to
regularly use the port commercially after the USSR collapse, and the Russian
ATC guys were not all that proficient at English, particularly if you had to
go non-standard. On one of our first trips in, we called approaching
Russian airspace, but we were quite a bit earlier than schedule (the
vagaries of the cargo world). The Russian on the ground replied,
laboriously churning out the unfamiliar words " _________, why are you
here?" To my American pop-culture ears, raised in the 50s and 60s US of A,
he sounded for all the world like Boris Badenov!!!! I couldn't help myself.
Grabbing the mike, I put on my best, deep, gutteral accent and said,
"...Looking for moose and squirrel!"

The poor son of a gun on the ground had no idea what we were saying, and the
four of us in the office were incapacitated laughing for a good 2 or 3
minutes. I've often wondered how close we came to getting escorted or shot
at!!