Whereas the REAL answer to the question is "So that the British Airways pilot, listening in, can understand the request and has an opportunity to realize that i

Whereas the REAL answer to the question is "So that the British Airways pilot, listening in, can understand the request and has an opportunity to realize that it might cross his flight path." The use of English as a common worldwide air-traffic control language is widely considered a step forward in air safety.[citation needed] The safety comes from the consistency, not from any particular property of English.