Probably only a few of us fly boys know of this, but did you know that years ago the English language had been named as the universal language for all of the world's Air Traffic Controllers? However, the problem still exists with foreign ATC's having either poor English speaking skills (speaking words correctly), or have such a bad accent that some of the words that they say (pronounce) come out sounding like other words. Over the years, many accidents have been attributed to ATC's in other countries not being able to properly pronounce words correctly.
The world's worse air disaster was actually on the ground when two B-747's collided in Tenerife and was due "partly" to the ATC's poor English.
The world's worse air disaster was actually on the ground when two B-747's collided in Tenerife and was due "partly" to the ATC's poor English.