A Delta Air Lines pilot and Mexico City air traffic controller had a rather frustrating interaction during an emergency. Is the air traffic controller to blame, or was the pilot’s lackluster communication a contributing factor?
Continue reading: Delta Pilot Loses Patience With Mexico ATC During Emergency
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I’ve personally lost my patience with Mexican customer service staff of Sony. They gave me a hard time.
Many Mexicans are very friendly. Some are not.
I think that the pilots are at fault for wanting to return to MEX in the first place. We're talking a facility that constantly runs over capacity and with all that traffic there's much more chance of something going wrong in an emergency there as opposed to NLU or TLC.
Note that they didn't even really explain why they didn't want NLU after it had been suggested to them. They come across as stereotypically arrogant, ignorant Americans with little understanding of the area in which they're operating and no respect for the people trying to assist them.
To Americans, Mexico is either MEX or cartel controlled territory. Suggesting an American go anywhere other than MEX is tantamount to suggesting they go to hell.
The arrogance of Americans is insufferable and their stupidity is plainly apparent on any test of IQ or similar.
And it didn't take long for some moron to bring Trump into something that has nothing do with politics. Ben it's a shame that people bring their roaring TDS to a site you work hard to keep focused on aviation.
Seemingly maybe both pilot and controller were at fault.
There you go again Arps …. harping on completely off topic just to see your own rhetoric repeated herein.
There you go again Arps …. harping on completely off topic just to see your own rhetoric repeated herein.
You’re obviously desperate for replies, your level of education and understanding of the world is obvious. At least Trump gives you an opportunity to get replies. Another win
"Declaring emergency" absolutely is a valid term within standard phraseology and is commonly used in Europe for example. I do agree that the US pilots often struggle following rules of radiocommunications and for whatever reason fail to use standard phraseology, including the pilots in question, but this particular term is perfectly okay to use.
English being my primary and only language, I still as a young girl spent quit a of time with very close friends who's first language was Spanish and English being their second language; and I had a difficult time understanding several parts of what the controller was trying to say let alone he stumbled over a couple of his sentences along with the partial inaudible parts of what he was saying. Yes I agree the first thing the pilot should have said was he has an emergency or mayday and what his problem was rather than towards the end of his communication. But it sounded like the pilot was over distracted by the problem at hand and was more focused on the plane and going thru their procedures. He probably should have had his Copilot make the call in. Isn't that normally what they do anyhow that way the Pilot can focus at his extremely complex and high skill required Job? Idk maybe I'm confused at all the episodes of that Mayday Aviation show on TV I've watched.
Agreed. People need to keep their ridiculous personal feelings and emotions to their selves and stick to the topic at hand. Pathetic honestly if you ask me. Their just showing their asses when they do that.
Agreed. People need to keep their ridiculous personal feelings and emotions to their selves and stick to the topic at hand. Pathetic honestly if you ask me. Their just showing their asses when they do that. And to insult people by calling them retarded is very mature too. It's not retarded people's fault they've got a handicap and yet their still so well spirited individuals. Maybe he should have used the insult MEX instead. Sounds more appropriate to me.
I am in TLC all the time with my job, often several times a month. It’s no place DL would EVER send a plane full of their customers, the exception being a dire emergency like a fire of course. The airport just isn’t suitable for a Mx diversion like this one. The best option for everyone involved here was to go back to MEX.
It's called TDS for a reason.
He lives rent free in the mind of the snowflakes.
Your arrogance is actually what’s insufferable. Great job highlighting your ignorance with your comments here!
Wrong! Declaring an emergency is only used in the US and is not standard ICAO terminology. It’s definitely not used in Europe
Makes me think of the old clip of the British ship on the radio to the German coast guard and declaring “we are sinking. Repeat: We are sinking”.
German coast guard replies (in German accent) “what are you sinking about?”
Toluca used to have service from a couple of US carriers and even had mainline Continental employees at one point and had a pretty decent maintenance contractor. There are/used to be some fairly okay hotels nearby, but that may have changed.
TLC is an airport that operates multiple flights per day, it would definitely be able to handle such an incident. Whether DL customers would be fond of that part of Estado de México is neither here nor there.
In defense of the pilots, remember your ANCs. Aviate. Navigate. Communicate. Communication is last for a reason, so you aren't wasting time on more important tasks. Keep the bird in the air, go in a direction you need to put it. Then chit chat with ATC about getting it on the ground.
And your use of the term TDS brings your politics into the mix. Pot, meet kettle.
"I know that 737 pilots do a lot of domestic flying, but they should follow international standards when flying abroad."
Just ponder that.
International standards are designed to be used globally, not "globally except America".
The language is not the English of Peoria, nor of Sydney, Delhi, or Liverpool - it is Aviation English.
Americans participated in setting those standards.
So use them. Not just abroad. Everywhere.
Avoiding terrain is the pilot’s responsibility— not ATC that is what minimum sector or safe altitudes on approach plates are for
In a REAL Emergency you ask vectors to get re-established on final approach and get the aircraft on the ground ! Terrain around Mexico City airport is not the place to screw around !
Wouldnt this be a Pan Pan call vs mayday as it is not immediately life threatening
La comunicación podría haber sido mejor tanto por parte del ATC como de los pilotos.
Why the age of the plane? How does that contribute anything to these type of ATC stories?
Been mentions this (plane type, age, often registration number), in pretty much every article, even for flight reviews.
I was on this flight. The onboard communications were vague and sounded like the whole crew was scared. From the comments and the video it does seem like it was a combo of the pilot and ATC. The pilot seemed deeply sincerely apologetic when we were exiting the plane. I’m glad I read these comments because I was definitely putting all the blame on the ATC. Boy did I feel the turbulence of only being 2500 feet off the ground!
The main problem was the Air crew's failure to use standardized aviation phraseology. While there was a significant exchange of words, very little essential information was communicated. Standardized communication is crucial because it ensures that pilots and controllers can effectively communicate, regardless of the country in which they are operating.