IIT Madras kickstarts training for ATCs in English

Chennai: Realising that ATCs were finding it difficult to understand the English accents of foreign pilots of varied nationalities, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras) launched an English language proficiency course for aeronautical use.
The course, developed by linguists from the Humanities and Social Sciences department of IIT Madras following a request from AAI, is aimed at training and assessing conversational skills and language proficiency of ATCs and aeronautical station operators across the country. The first batch undergoing training will largely comprise ATCs from the south, but also include one from each of the other regions.
The programme comes in the wake of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s insistence that air traffic controllers and pilots should clear minimum proficiency requirement standards set by the organisation as a number of air mishaps were being traced to language barriers across the world. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has now declared that all existing air traffic controllers are deemed to be at Level four and that they should be assessed once in two years until they reach Level six which is the highest. The assessment should be completed by March 2011.
"..Faculty from IIT Madras will train the personnel, test voice communication skills, and give certificates. The two-day course will be conducted in batches for a month continuously," said AAI regional executive director for southern region D Devaraj. Stress would be on ensuring that ATCs communicate clearly without much trace of a local accent.
21/10/10 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2010