Bushman From Russia, joined Jan 2007, 21 posts, RR: 0 Posted (9 months 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 985 times:
Hi everyone!
This is my first thread so please don't judge me very strictly
Yesterday I was listening to SVO tower on my radio-scanner. There was an Air Baltic flight landing. The pilot communicating with the ATC had definite Russian accent but spoke English. Shortly before them I heard a Lithuanian pilot communicating with ATC in Russian. And some time ago there were Estonian guys speaking Russian too.
I know that nearly all crews from former Soviet republics speak to ATC in Russian when flying to Russia. They use English mostly in cases there is a supervisor on board checking their knowledge. But all Air Baltic crews I was listening to spoke only English no matter they were Russian-speakers or not.
My question is:
Can it be an airline internal policy of using only English for ATC communications or is there any other reason for this?
IMPORTANT NOTE!
I respect all nations and all languages in the world and I expect the same from you, guys. Please don't post anything offensive regarding Latvia, Russia or any other country or language.
ZRH From Switzerland, joined Nov 1999, 4727 posts, RR: 24 Reply 2, posted (9 months 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 929 times:
Actually I find ALL pilots must speak English to the ATC anywhere in the world on international airports for security reasons. Pilots of other airlines should be able to understand what they are talking. In some countries it is a very bad habit to talk the local language. In Switzerland it would never be allowed to Swiss pilots to talk German or French to the ATC. BTW when this pilot was from a Baltic country he probably does not like the Russian language at all.
Prebennorholm From Denmark, joined Mar 2000, 4837 posts, RR: 50 Reply 3, posted (9 months 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 875 times:
Quoting Bushman (Thread starter): Can it be an airline internal policy of using only English for ATC communications or is there any other reason for this?
Almost sure
Air Baltic is a fully owned subsidiary of SK and they will follow SK policy. Just like no Danish SK pilot will ever dream about speaking Danish when going into CPH. An Air Baltic pilot, having a minor incident (his fault or not, maybe ATC fault), if he spoke any non-English on the CVR, then he might be in great trouble.
SK has a minority stake in Estonian Air (49%?), but it's an Estonian company. Lithuanian is a Lithuanian company. They may be more relaxed. Just like I have been told that some AF pilots do talk French when approaching CDG.
But a company like the SAS group, spreading their home base activities over several countries with separate national languages, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish (Spanair), Latvian (Air Baltic), Finnish (Blue1), will definitely stick 100% to the internationally agreed ATC language, which is English.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 7412 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (9 months 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 859 times:
Quoting ZRH (Reply 2): Actually I find ALL pilots must speak English to the ATC anywhere in the world on international airports for security reasons. Pilots of other airlines should be able to understand what they are talking. In some countries it is a very bad habit to talk the local language.
That's not correct. Local languages are used in ATC communications all over the world.
Quoting ZRH (Reply 2): In Switzerland it would never be allowed to Swiss pilots to talk German or French to the ATC.
If you are referring to Swiss pilots generically (and not the airline LX) that's also not correct. I often hear ATC communications with the GVA ATC centre in French.
IIRC, all controllers are required to know English, and so are flight crews that venture out of the "home territory."
If you fly in Mexico, everyone speaks Spanish on the radio, unless you have an N-number, then you get to talk to the controller only in (my experience, at least) English that's as good as the controller knows (Which may be excellent, easy-to-understand English or extremely broken English). If you only speak English, don't expect to be able to get more than the basic communcations needed for aviation out of the controllers down there. Unfortunately, my knowledge of aviation Spanish (which has many technical terms, just like aviation English) was lacking .
Rulebooks and regulations are made from paper...and they do a poor job at preventing metal from contacting rock-Ernest G
TheSonntag From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 2483 posts, RR: 18 Reply 9, posted (9 months 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 765 times:
Quoting CosmicCruiser (Reply 7): Correct..the French speak French, the Germans speak German, etc
Yes, but at international airports in Germany, German airlines would NEVER speak German. Germans always speak English on passenger planes, which does not cause safety issues like the ones which might occur at CDG. Private Pilots are something else, of course.
Starlionblue From Greenland, joined Feb 2004, 13036 posts, RR: 57 Reply 14, posted (9 months 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 595 times:
Quoting FlyDeltaJets (Reply 13): English is the wold standard and is required by IATA regs to be spoken but that doesnt mean that complacency does not exist
I'm a bit fuzzy on this but AFAIK It is not a domestic requirement in all countries. In fact Russian is quite enough domestically in Russia.
http://www.icao.int/icao/en/trivia/peltrgFAQ.htm#23. Note "Therefore, pilots on international flights shall demonstrate language proficiency in either English or the language used by the station on the ground. Controllers working on stations serving designated airports and routes used by international air services shall demonstrate language proficiency in English as well as in any other language(s) used by the station on the ground."
My real self is a Blood Elf Mage in Azeroth. Meet him on Boulderfist.
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 7412 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (9 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 583 times:
Quoting FlyDeltaJets (Reply 13): English is the wold standard and is required by IATA regs to be spoken but that doesnt mean that complacency does not exist
Any regs. on that subject would involve ICAO, not IATA.
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IIRC, all controllers are required to know English, and so are flight crews that venture out of the "home territory."
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