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English is the IAL as far as air traffic control is concerned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_English >

by msla 4y ago

English is the IAL as far as air traffic control is concerned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_English > Aviation English is the de facto international language of civil aviation. With the expansion of air travel in the 20th century, there were safety concerns about the ability of pilots and air traffic controllers to communicate. In 1951, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommended in "ICAO Annex 10 ICAO (Vol I, 5.2.1.1.2) to the International Chicago Convention" that English be universally used for "international aeronautical radiotelephony communications."[1] Despite being a recommendation only, ICAO aviation English was widely accepted.

monocasa 4y ago
To be fair, the greatest aviation disaster of all time was caused by a mutual misunderstanding from English's complexity and diversity, causing two 747s to believe they both had right of way on an air strip and then they crashed into each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster
- vikingerik 4y ago
  This is true, but the counterpoint is that we'll never know the converse - we'll never know how many accidents didn't happen thanks to using a single language universally.
  - monocasa 4y ago
    I guess the point I'm making isn't against using a single language, but that English isn't a great choice for that language since it's not simple nor standardized. Aviation's lesson from this was basically to invent their own dialect, that unfortunately isn't general purpose enough to be used much outside of aviation.
- fsckboy 4y ago
  > To be fair you're not being fair, though. A common language was chosen for aviation, and nothing in that article suggests that a different language choice would have been better. In this case you had Dutch speakers communicating with Spanish speakers. English does offer a blend between romance and germanic languages (which of course could lead to "false friends", but no language will be perfect)

by msla 4y ago

monocasa 4y ago

To be fair, the greatest aviation disaster of all time was caused by a mutual misunderstanding from English's complexity and diversity, causing two 747s to believe they both had right of way on an air strip and then they crashed into each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster

vikingerik 4y ago
This is true, but the counterpoint is that we'll never know the converse - we'll never know how many accidents didn't happen thanks to using a single language universally.
- monocasa 4y ago
  I guess the point I'm making isn't against using a single language, but that English isn't a great choice for that language since it's not simple nor standardized. Aviation's lesson from this was basically to invent their own dialect, that unfortunately isn't general purpose enough to be used much outside of aviation.
fsckboy 4y ago
> To be fair you're not being fair, though. A common language was chosen for aviation, and nothing in that article suggests that a different language choice would have been better. In this case you had Dutch speakers communicating with Spanish speakers. English does offer a blend between romance and germanic languages (which of course could lead to "false friends", but no language will be perfect)