04/11/02 04:58:58
Korean Pilots Face Crisis over ICAO English Evaluations
Many pilots from Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are on the verge of being cut out from international routes starting 2008.
This is because the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations,
has decided to evaluate the English conversation ability of airline pilots and air traffic controllers from non-English speaking nations in order to reduce the number of accidents,
and those who fail to pass those evaluations would be taken off international lines.
Korean pilots and air traffic controllers cannot shake the stigma of having the worst English conversation skills on the international lines.
There is talk that the ICAO's primary target was Northeast Asia, and Korea in particular.
This is because of Korea's record of accidents resulting from the poor English skills of its pilots.
During the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States,
a Korean Air passenger liner was nearly shot down by U.S. fighter jets that had made a sortie after mistaking the craft for a hijacked jet.
It was learned that the pilot's poor English skills played a large part in this incident.
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