Sir - Press comment has followed a UK television item on "poor English among pilots" in the context of air-traffic control.
It was claimed that the poor English of some foreign pilots constitutes a serious safety hazard. The UK Civil Aviation Authority does not believe this to be so. Of the 3,200 incidents reported this year under its Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme, only three appear to have communications difficulties as a prime causal factor involving a pilot whose native language is not English. Nevertheless, when an occurrence report is received relating to an actual or perceived language problem affecting safety, the CAA follows up by contacting the operator.
Communication snags can arise for other reasons - failure to use international-standard radio telephony, or phraseology by pilots or controllers, for example.
The CAA monitors all reports of such incidents and initiates action where required. If poor English were to become a safety issue which cannot be resolved with operators, this would then be taken up at Government-to-Government level.
Richard Profit
Head of Aerodrome and Air Traffic Standards Division
Safety Regulation Group
Civil Aviation Authority,
Gatwick Airport, Sussex, UK
Source: Flight International
