Aviation English in South African airspace

Salome Coertze,Chris R Burger,Simone Conradie,Kate Huddlestone

doi:10.5842/42-0-167

Abstract

A lack of English proficiency and failure to use standard phraseology played a role in the world’s largest aviation disaster which occurred in Tenerife in 1977 (Tenerife Information Center 2009). As a result, the crucial role of effective communication between pilots and air-traffic controllers (ATCs) came under scrutiny (Cushing 1997), with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) implementing English language proficiency standards and compulsory language testing of pilots and ATCs (Tiewtrakul and Fletcher 2010). Consequently, the use of so-called “Aviation English” (AE) was enforced which consists of a range of operationally-relevant language functions and dialogue management as well as formulaic standard phraseology (Shawcross 2008). The study reported on in this paper has two aims: (i) to investigate pilots’ and ATCs’ perceptions of the role of language in air-traffic communication, and (ii) to investigate the use of AE in authentic pilot-ATC communication in South African airspace. In order to address the first aim, an online questionnaire was designed to investigate issues surrounding the role of language in air-traffic communication. A total of 197 pilots and 66 ATCs completed the questionnaire. To address the second aim, approximately 10 hours’ worth of recordings were obtained of on-site air-traffic communication at two airport towers in Gauteng. These were then transcribed and carefully analysed within the framework of Van Es’s (2004) SHELL model and with the aid of a taxonomy compiled on the basis of two previous studies by Cardosi, Brett and Han (1997) and Van Es (2004). The results of the questionnaire indicated that the majority of the respondents support ICAO’s English language proficiency standards and testing. Although the respondents believe that language-related communication problems can cause serious and sometimes fatal incidents, they are confident that the problems are resolved quickly and successfully, thereby avoiding potentially hazardous situations. The results of the analysis of the voice recordings correlated with the results of the questionnaire. Only a small number of transmissions were identified with read-back errors as well as a small number of transmissions containing deviations from AE and standard phraseology. When miscommunications did occur, pilots and ATCs resolved these problems quickly and effectively using AE as well as plain English to successfully negotiate understanding. After discussing in more detail the results of the analyses of the two data sets, a conclusion is provided with some suggestions for further, specifically linguistic, investigations into AE and pilot-ATC communication in South Africa. A brief illustration is also given of the potential value of research, such as that reported here, for benchmarking speech systems for unmanned aircraft (cf. Burger, Barnard and Jones 2011).

Highlights

Since 1951, English has been the international language of aviation and the lingua franca in airspace in most parts of the world1
This paper reports on an initial investigation into the use and nature of Aviation English” (AE) in pilot-air-traffic controllers (ATCs) communication in South Africa
Questions 1.) How many times have you experienced radio communication problems while flying/doing air-traffic control? 2.) How many times have you been in threatening situations while flying/doing airraffic control where communication problems contributed to the situation? 3.) How confident are you that problems in communication among pilots and ATCs in South Africa are resolved quickly and in order to avoid accidents? 4.) In your opinion, which category is most often the cause of communication problems

Summary

Introduction

Since 1951, English has been the international language of aviation and the lingua franca in airspace in most parts of the world. The study’s two main aims were: (i) to investigate pilots’ and ATCs’ perceptions of the role of language in airtraffic communication, and (ii) to investigate the use of so-called “Aviation English” (AE) in authentic pilot-ATC communication in South African airspace. During the investigation of the collision, the controllers indicated that they had requested that the Russian pilot reduce his altitude. When the pilot did not respond, neither verbally nor by reducing his altitude, it became clear to the controllers that the aircraft was on a collision course with the cargo plane. The request was issued a second and a third time and immediately after this, the Russian plane went into a dive and collided with the cargo plane. The accident killed 71 people, including 52 children. Hamer (2002:1) notes that “[t]he [ATCs’] requests would have been in English and it is possible that a language problem caused a misunderstanding”

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Results

Conclusion