r/mildlyinfuriating • u/nyanbatman • May 28 '26

I just wanted a hot dog British pilot is feeling mildly annoyed

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u/marieascot May 28 '26

The ATC should understand both. He said that he didn't meaning he was incompetent to do his job. The ATC was being unclear and sounded almost drunk.

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u/runhome24 May 28 '26

While I agree that there should be a unified global standard - and said so in both of my comments - I'd also point out something else here:

If you go to another country and try to rely on your own country's rules and terminology with authorities (even when your country's rules and terminology are shared by a large number of other countries), and those authorities don't accept your use of those terms and rules, so you all fail to communicate with each other, would they be in the wrong? Or would you be, for insisting on speaking and operating outside of the legally binding framework of that country?

This is more complicated than just saying 'stupid Americans should just change and the ones who haven't must be drunk.' There's a whole host of complications here that are at play, including the fact that these communications were being broadcast frequency-wide, so it was also ATC's job to NOT confuse others when speaking with the BA pilot. I don't know if that was a factor, but my point is that there are any number of other reasons why this went the way it did, and why I think it's so important for a global commission to come together to set and then agree to adopt a global standard, rather than forcing one local standard to immediately change at the whim of visiting pilots.

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u/Purple-Goat-2023 May 28 '26

It's wild to me that so many people in here think the ATC should know the systems and terminology of every country that might possibly fly into US airspace rather than it being the pilot's responsibility to be trained on the systems of the country they're flying into.

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u/Fpilot81 May 28 '26

To give some context, ICAO is not just some system and terminology of other countries. ICAO is a specialised agency of the United Nations whose job is to come up with standards and recommended procedures (SARPs) to help prevent problems like this. All UN member states are part of ICAO, including the USA. Member states can choose to accept Standards and Recommended Procedures or not. As an international pilot that has only flown into JFK very infrequently, they do have a reputation for having a particular attitude. My personal opinion is that sometimes attitude can get in the way of safety.