Scanning the sky for ‘bards’: DGCA gives Indian carriers till November 1 to get pilots certified for aviation English

Recently, an expatriate piloting a commercial flight from Chennai to Delhi spent several moments in utter confusion trying to understand why the air traffic controller was asking him to “exercise caution for bards.” His Aviation English Language Proficiency course had never trained him for this. It was only when he discussed this with other fellow pilots that he discovered that it was meant to be “exercise caution for birds.”

‘Deadhead’, ‘squawk’

As a part of the language course, pilots need to know what a ‘deadhead’ is’, or a ‘squawk’, or how to respond to a ‘pan-pan’. These are just a few examples of the special language pilots must speak, whatever their nationality. It was created by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) to help ensure that pilots and air controllers don’t misunderstand each other and avoid potentially fatal accidents from taking place.

Earlier this week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that even as a July 1 deadline approached, Indian airlines had failed to get their Aviation English Language Proficiency training for pilots certified by it. The test needs to be certified by the aviation regulator as it examines a pilot’s ability to communicate safely in English and avoid confusion.

And with none of the six major Indian carriers adhering to the norms, DGCA was forced to extend the deadline by four months to November 1 so that the airlines comply. Framed in January, the new certification norms should have been implemented from July 1 to meet the international standards.

“Language proficiency skills refers to the knowledge and abilities which impact on the capacity of a given individual to communicate spontaneously, accurately, intelligibly, meaningfully and appropriately in a given language,” a DGCA official, who declined to be identified, said.

The language of flight, or Aviation English, consists of about 300 words — a combination of professional jargon and plain English.

To understand pilot speak, one must first learn the international phonetic alphabet. Then comes a list of words you may have heard on flights such as ‘roger,’ which means ‘understood,’ ‘affirm,’ which means ‘yes,’ and ‘approach,’ which means ‘coming in to land.’

With the terminology of aviation changing rapidly, pilots are required to pass strict language tests in order to fly planes safely.