In three accidents (one collision on the ground, one accident involving fuel exhaustion and one controlled flight into terrain), over 800 people lost their lives. What these seemingly different types of accidents had in common was that, in each one, accident investigators found that insufficient English language proficiency on the part of the flight crew or a controller [...]
In three accidents (one collision on the ground, one accident involving fuel exhaustion and one controlled flight into terrain), over 800 people lost their lives. What these seemingly different types of accidents had in common was that, in each one, accident investigators found that insufficient English language proficiency on the part of the flight crew or a controller had played a contributing role in the chain of events leading to the accident. In addition to these high-profile accidents, multiple incidents and near misses as a result of language problems are reported annually, instigating a review of communication procedures and standards worldwide.
ICAO ’s Air Navigation Commission (ANC) in recognizing the importance of improving communication between pilots and air traffic controllers in order to avoid accidents, reviewed the existing provisions for air-ground and ground-ground voice communication in the international civil aviation context. The ANC made changes to strengthen ICAO Annexes 1, 6, 10, 11 about language proficiency requirements for pilots and air traffic controllers.
Changes to ICAO’s English Language Proficiency Requirements
Annex 1 describes the language proficiency and testing requirements, and contains a language proficiency rating scale with six proficiency levels. Annexes 6 and 11 establish that all pilots and air traffic controllers must comply with the ICAO language proficiency requirements outlined in Annex 1. Thus as of 5 April 2008, pilots, air traffic controllers and aeronautical station operators must be proficient in both ICAO phraseology and plain English by demonstrating the ability to speak and understand the language used for radiotelephony communications to the specified level in Appendix 1.
Implications of the Changes for the Aviation Industry
All speakers of English must demonstrate a minimum English language proficiency at ICAO Level 4 (Operational) in order to be fully licensed internationally.
Air traffic personnel will be required to take a test to determine their English language proficiency according to the ICAO proficiency scale. Personnel will need to demonstrate ability to use the language specific to all aspects of radiotelephony communication.
Personnel who demonstrate English language proficiency at
- ICAO Level 6 (Expert) will not be required to demonstrate English language proficiency in the future.
- ICAO Level 5 (Extended) will need to be retested every six years.
- ICAO Level 4 (Operational) will need to be retested every three years.
- ICAO Level 3 or below will need specific Aviation English language training to reach the minimum ICAO Operational Level.
In an ATS incident investigation that I was involved in this year, the lack of English language proficiency played a role in creating the incident where an aircraft landed at a different airport than the ATCO expected.
Hey wayne great story! and great Website! I own a website (and also build websites on the side as well) that teaches english classes for eveyone but we have Classes that are designed specifically for pilots and air traffic controlers that need to imporve their english skills for the ICAO tests. here is the link for that: http://www.skypeenglishclasses.com/english-for-pi... Im not sure how many hits you get from around the world but anyone that needs to work on their aviation english can check that out. Thanks.
Thanks for your comment Luke. Let us together help to make aviation safer by promoting English language proficiency. Maybe be can trade backlinks on our websites.