Foreign pilots facing language trouble

New Delhi:Even as Indian pilots are pushed to the wall by hectic schedules, foreign pilots working for various airlines in India are feeling another kind of heat. After several near-disasters involving foreigners in cockpits were reported, it has emerged that flying skills are not enough; language matters too.
Many of these pilots are from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uzbekistan and Kazhakistan where English is not very popular. And it is possible that they are not getting the Air Traffic commands in English right. Six months ago, 119 passengers of an Air Sahara flight from Kolkata to Mumbai had a narrow escape after Captain Erick Vargas, a Bolivian national, misjudged the length of the runway and overshot it.
Far from being an isolated incident, NDTV has learnt such close calls involving foreign pilots have been quite regular in recent months.
20/03/06 Sandeep Phukan/NDTV.com

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