ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1996            TAG: 9611180060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press

PLANE SPEAKING: PILOTS TALK TO TOWERS OF BABEL

An unfamiliar turn of phrase, a heavy accent, an overly abbreviated command - in the exchange between pilots and air traffic controllers, miscommunication can have deadly consequences.

It has contributed to at least two airline disasters, including the deadliest ever, and the language barrier is being investigated as a possible cause in this week's collision of an airliner and a cargo plane over India.

The problem has so frustrated pilots and air traffic controllers around the world that a group of them is trying to devise a standardized phrase book.

``It's so important. No matter what you say, no matter where in the world you say it, you have to be able to be understood,'' said Tom Kreamer, a USAir pilot who handles safety and standards issues with the international and U.S. pilot associations.

There are two issues, as some pilots see it: the need for a standard language, and the need for a standard choice of words within that language.

Generally, English serves as the de facto language of aviation worldwide. Some countries, like Holland, forbid the use of any language but English, while other countries, like France, allow the local language to be used between the ground and their national airline.

Control tower conversations in another language can be unnerving to some pilots, leaving them guessing what's going on around their plane.

``I know where I am at any given time,'' Kreamer said. ``If a controller speaks to another aircraft in another language, I have no way of knowing where that aircraft is and what it's going to do.''

But even a common language isn't enough.

The 1990 crash of an Avianca jet in Cove Neck, N.Y., might have been averted but for a poor choice of words.

The plane went down, killing 73 people, when it ran out of fuel while circling the airport. The co-pilot, whose native language was Spanish, had told controllers, in English: ``We're running out of fuel.'' Had he declared a ``fuel emergency,'' he would have been given priority to land.

LENGTH: Short :   45 lines