This has to be one of the most hilarious cases of miscommunication that I’ve seen between pilots and air traffic controllers, as flagged by PYOK.
Continue reading: Airplane Toilet Misunderstanding Leads To Air Traffic Control Emergency
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
At first I thought the controller must’ve been an idiot, but then I listened to it and the pilot is pronouncing “toilets” like “tie-lets”, and of course the controller got confused. I wouldn’t have understood without the captions.
Jesus. Maybe try another word like "lavatory" after the fifth misunderstanding?
They should have channeled their inner Cousin Eddie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7Nz0ostKA
"Shitter's full"
Very clear to everyone.
If international aviation would adopt the Archie Bunker pronunciation of "terlets" then this situation could have been avoided. Barring that, yeah, call it a "commode" or a "lavatory" when it becomes clear that your words are being misinterpreted.
Somehow it seems inappropriate to laugh at this miscommunication. Apparently I am inappropriate. But I am also glad the control was concerned there could have been a non-potty problem.
The arrogance of the French rules their airways. The refusal of some to acknowledge the English language spoken by other Europeans is legendary.
One is also of the opinion that the ATC operator was and probably is an arrogant “Idiot”.
The French word for toilet is ‘toilette’.
Nice is/was renowned for attracting ex Parisian ATC employees who believe themselves to be a ‘cut above’.
You seem to have read a different story than everyone else. The communication was in English. I would also note that as a European, I have no problem getting by with English in France, let alone in aviation.
I listened with an open mind and it sort of does sound like "pilots". The pilot's pronunciation is actually very good, better than ATC. It appears that both people's native language is not English so they didn't pick up on cues.
ATC speaks with probably their supervisor in French which the pilots may not have heard. If they did, they don't speak French.
I wish I could speak Portuguese as well as the pilot speaks English.
He's the BA version of Tim Dunn.
He will insult everyone but can't make sense of anything except SkxTrax says BA is premium.
This brings the issue of how ATCs and Pilots communicate. Many recordings demonstrate that it is often difficult for native English speakers to correctly understand each other over radio. Add to this the fact that sometimes in busy settings one communication is cut off by another on the same frequency. Perhaps a text based method with some drop down menus of common interactions might provide a safer interchange of information between ATCs and Pilots. Teenagers seem to have no need to communicate verbally. Why should pilots and ATCs
One would suggest to you Samo, that you have not actually read my post, alternatively, giving you the benefit of the doubt, perhaps you do not quite understand the nuance contained therein. Regardless, thank you for your observation.
Certainly it will ‘fly’ over the heads of the likes of Eskimo and Co …. 🙂
So Oscar from India is doing the Tango with someone from Lima while the plane is flying over the Sierras?
…. and to you Eskimo, or Mason, or Julie, or Plain Jane, or Dim Tunn, or Dym Tunn, or whoever else you are impersonating just now. Insulting the likes of you would be a complete and utter waste of one’s time. Some people are incapable of recognising such finesse, right Bro? …. 🙂
That was my first thought. I can completely see how the misunderstanding started, but lavatory is a standard international term that would be understood also.
Both ATC should be given some desk work and they should replace them with
English speaking staff with good accent
And pronunciation of English vocabulary
Same kind of problem happened when Japan airlines pilot mistakenly landed in juhuairport instead of Santacruz airport
In bombay ;BOM.
I can’t tell if you’re taking the piss ;), Aero, or if you actually think anyone can out-arrogant the British.
THIS! because the more I hear the recording, the more it sounds like PILOTS instead of toilets
I was fast to preemptively put the blame on NCE ATC.. but after hearing the recording.. the more I hear it.. the more it sounds like PILOT instead of TOILET, and she's vocabulary seems so limited that in so many interactions hinting they couldn't grasp the world, she's not able to try with LAVATORIES
I could hear the pilot rolling her eyes by the midpoint of the video. That said, the word "lavatory" or "restroom" would have saved some headache here.
It's amazing that worldwide aviation is dependent on analog staticky 1940s-era push-to-talk microphones, everyone speaking English (aviation was first developed by the English and the Americans), and no textual communication.
"verbally" means "with words".
teenagers only rarely have hundreds of lives in their hands.
Yes, obviously switch words to lavatory, bathroom, head, etc... anything but toilet apparently.
But besides this obvious easy fix, ATC kept asking about pilots and TAP said "no" multiple times. Shouldn't that tip you off?
What I have noticed in life and especially in professional settings, people think your question is a magnitude of ten times more complex than it actually is. I often start by saying, "I have a simple question..." just to lower expectations. Who knows, I'm just spitballing that maybe that would have helped here.
Adamantly not wanting to declare an emergency, even a panpan, multiple times should have been a clue to the ATC that the situation was more under control than would be a flight with no pilots. I wonder if there is a bit of chauvinism at play and the ATC is conflating female voice with "not a pilot".
I've noticed that in lots of non-English-speaking countries, people don't use the word "toilet" when speaking in English. They always seem to use "bathroom" instead. I don't know if people who do know the word "toilet" think it is impolite, but I find it common for people to not even know the word.
Honestly, I am very surprised that the TAP pilots nor the air traffic controllers do not speak French or Portuguese respectively. They rather learn their more closely Romance language over a dated language that less and less people are pursuing. Why haven't people learned that the sun has set already?
It sounded like the pilot was saying pilots. You would think after the third time being questioned she would have had the bright idea to use a word other than toilet. Instead she was just dismissive of them when clearly they were confused about what was said.
TAP pilots routinely speak to controllers with dozens different native languages. French ATC handles pilots from literally all over the planet. How many languages do you expect these people to learn?
English is the lingua franca of the continent, not just in aviation. Anyone who made it past high school in the last 20 years speaks it to some extent. Portuguese is, frankly, of an extremely limited use in Europe. French a bit more, but still only really works in France and Wallonia, elsewhere you'll get by much more easily in English.
'Muricans and their understanding of the world...
On JFK and LGA ATC vids everyone in the comments is always complaining about nonstandard ICAO phraseology on comms and lamenting how the yuropeeans do it so much better.
Time for the peanut gallery to shove a sweaty sock in their mouths.
As long as the opposite does not happen… “mayday mayday we have no pilot” “do you need to go to the toilet?”