Aviation Radiotelephony Discourse: An Issue of Safety 229words in novel contexts. This creative function of language is especially
useful in accommodating the complex and unpredictable nature of human
interaction, including in the context of aviation communications. There is
simply no more suitable form of speech for human interactions than
natural languages” (ICAO, 2010: 1.3.2).
Results reported show that for pilots, unexpected messages from air
traffic controllers are clearances, instructions, information about runway
direction changes, and (presumably unanticipated) information about
having breached controlled airspace or about conflicting traffic. This result
suggests that native language was not an influencing factor in what pilots
found difficult with radio communication. There was also limited evidence
from the data to suggest that both non-native English pilots and native
English speaking pilots find it difficult to understand other pilots and both
categories experience the same problems communicating with air traffic
controllers. This result suggests that neither actual number of years of
speaking English nor English as a native language had any impact on the
number of miscommunications between a pilot and an air traffic
controller. This result suggests that qualifications were not an influencing
factor of radiotelephony miscommunication, that the most challenging
type of communication for pilots is not with an air traffic controller, but
with other pilots, and that pilots, irrespective of native language or
qualifications, find communicating with other pilots difficult (Estival and
Molesworth 2012).
Conclusion
Radiotelephony miscommunications are still a key problem of the
language-related human factor, which negatively affects the safety of
flights. The variety of miscommunications and their causes gives grounds
to search for a reliable and precise repertoire of radiotelephony
communication distortions that can predict possible human factor
(language related) risks for flight safety.
The reported threats to radiotelephony communication due to various
inaccuracies of phraseology utterances suggested that we should consider
the English language use from the cognitive perspective to identify
possible factors actively leading to errors due to inevitable processes
beyond the control of radiotelephony interactants.
Radiotelephony discourse analysis could be a key to finding possible
ways and tools to minimize the language-related human factor risks for
flight safety.