U.S. Airline Transport Pilot International Flight Language Experiences, Report 5: Language Experiences in Native English-Speaking Airspace/Airports

Abstract

In 1998, the International Civil Aviation Organization took a heightened interest in the role of language in airline accidents. Member states agreed to take steps to ensure air traffic control personnel and flight crews involved in flight operations in airspace where the use of the English language is required were proficient in conducting and comprehending radiotelephony communications in English. This report is a compilation of written responses and comments by U.S. pilots from American, Continental, Delta, and United Airlines of their difficulties in international operations. In this report, the pilots? responses to questions 46-53 are presented as a compiled narrative. Their responses had eight major thrusts from which we derived the following five recommendations: (1) Adopt a standard dialect for use in ATC communications. (2) All trainees and current certified professional controllers successfully complete instruction and training in the principles of voice production and articulation as it relates to ATC communication. (3) Define an optimal rate of speech for use by certified professional controllers when communicating with pilots. Research is needed to provide guidance on the optimal rate of speech for different populations of speakers ? U.S., Foreign. (4) Develop new standard phraseology for non-routine events. Generally, the controller needs to have the pilot answer one question, ?What do you need from me?? The controller would coordinate the appropriate actions to provide the pilot with what is needed. (5) Controllers should be discouraged from using local jargon, slang, idiomatic expressions, and other forms of conversational communications when transmitting messages to pilots.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA534673

Entities

People

  • Alan Campbell
  • Alfred M. Hendrix
  • O. Veronika Prinzo
  • Ruby Hendrix

Organizations

  • Federal Aviation Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Traffic
  • Air Traffic Controllers
  • Aircrafts
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Civil Aviation
  • English Language
  • Flight Crews
  • Grammars
  • Hong Kong
  • Language
  • New York
  • North America
  • Standards
  • Training
  • United States
  • Voice Communications
  • Workload

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Computational Linguistics
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space