Misunderstandings in Aviation Communication

Abstract

The consequences of ineffective communication can be life-threatening and dramatic. Communication misunderstandings are often cited as the cause of paranormal events in aviation which could lead to accidents/incidents. As a result, the risk of lack of communication is relatively high. Many factors that directly or indirectly influence the rate of misunderstandings in communication, such as language barriers, non-standardized phraseology, ambiguous communication, regional differences, and premature communication, are the causes of communication errors in flight. The study focuses on distinguishing and emphasizing various perspectives of communication and making suggestions to operators to reduce misunderstandings in aviation communications. The study is based on a survey highlighting the important communication loads such as flight training, standard expressions, operator’s native language, and cultural background. The survey collected 110 responses from pilots and ATCOs, from various countries, with approximately 20% being ATCOs and 75% being pilots. Some suggestions concluded based on the results of this study are (i) improving aviation training by further focusing on radiotelephony communications and (ii) familiarizing and permanently updating standard used phraseology among operators.

18.1 Introduction

The aviation business is rapidly growing; the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that global traffic will double in the next two decades. In fact, it is predicted that by 2050, nearly 10 billion passengers will travel by air annually (ATAG 2021). The burden on radio communication will naturally increase as global air traffic grows, and operators’ total load (work, task, information, communication, and mental) will be unbalanced by excess or underload. If nothing is done, this growth will raise the rate of operator errors and misunderstandings (Kale et al. 2021), resulting in an increase in the number of people killed in communication-related plane crashes around the world. To deal with this expansion, it is critical to provide the greatest degree of communication safety and security.

Misunderstandings and miscommunication between pilots and ATCOs are a common cause of aviation accidents and mishaps (Prinzo and Britton 1993). The rate of errors in radio communications is influenced by a variety of factors (Ragan 2002). According to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Aviation and Agency 2020), technical issues include blocked transmission, frequency congestion, radio equipment malfunction – air/ground, radio interference, and sleeping VHF receivers. In addition to human characteristics and skills, tacit knowledge, such as language level, speech rates, and ambiguous or non-standard phraseology (Papanikou et al. 2021), may play a vital role in aviation communication.

A considerable number of aviation operators, according to Alderson (2009) in a prior study, are not native English speakers, which is the language of international aviation communication. Another key element stated by Parasuraman et al. (2000) is the influence of the conflict between the high automation level and the operators during the flight, particularly when receiving or passing crucial information.

Operators must understand the functionality of flying the aircraft, adhere with standards, rules, and regulations, and manage continual situational awareness and decision-making processes to safely control an aircraft. However, one of the most difficult challenges for operators is maintaining a high level of situational awareness in the changing environment of flight (Kale and Tekbas 2017). There has been a lot of research on operator workload in recent years. Because of the rapid speed of technology change in aviation, operators now get far more, and sometimes contradictory, information from a variety of sources than they did in the early days of the industry.

The current authors define communication load burden as the level of comprehension between operators, which is strongly dependent on language, cultural norms, and social ties, among other factors. Because of the constant evolution of communication technologies, the technological backdrop of the operator’s communication requirements should also be enveloped.

Based on a survey issued to operators in various places across the world, this study assesses the communication load of operators in highly automated systems. This research is based on 110 operator replies, 88 pilots (75%), and 17 ATCOs (15%) from multiple nations. In addition, there is a tiny group of five operators that have both an ATCO and a pilot license (4.8%).

18.2 Method

By performing a survey on the descriptive characteristics of the operators from various angles, the research focused on the essential factors in operators’ communication load. The purpose of the questionnaire is to quantify the most important issues as seen through the eyes of the operators, based on their experience and knowledge.

The questionnaire was created based on aviation operators (pilots, ATCOs). There were 88 pilots (25 female), 22 of them were native English speakers and five ATCOs. There were 22 ATCOs in total, six of whom were female. The participants’ average age was 30 years for females and 34 years for males. Figure 18.1 depicts the gender-based variation in participant age and count.

Fig. 18.1

Participants’ age and gender variation

The experience levels of the participants are shown in Fig. 18.2 for pilots in hours flown and ATCOs in years.

Fig. 18.2

Experience levels for pilot (right) & ATCOs (left)

18.3 Results and Discussion

There was a section at the beginning part of the questionnaire asking the operators to mention the problematic nation in communicating, which is related to both the operators’ origin and cultural norms, shown in Fig. 18.3.

Fig. 18.3

The difficult nation in aviation communication from the participants’ point of view

Because the majority of airline operators are non-native English speakers, studying their original tongue would have a significant impact on the language barrier (see Fig. 18.4).

Fig. 18.4

Native language of the operators

The second section of the survey raised several concerns about aviation language competency hurdles between operators, such as cultural influences on language and native language effects. The findings revealed that non-native English speakers of operators have difficulty understanding native English speakers. Two more issues emerge from the findings: the cultural background plays a big impact on misunderstandings in communication, which can lead to accidents; and the responses demonstrated how effective communication affects the burden of the ICAO phraseology as a cornerstone in the communication between operators (see Fig. 18.5).

Fig. 18.5

Examples of language and culture-related questions and rate of response

The findings reveal that a full focus on radiotelephony communication should be established throughout operator training (pilots and ATCOs). Although the participants agreed that operators do not speak at the ICAO recommended rate, they also agreed that the ICAO standard phraseology should be more adaptable around the world, with more outreach to operators to familiarize them with their background and the applicability of ICAO phraseology.

Another important component is the operators’ level of experience, and switching from active control to passive monitoring could help reduce communication demands.

The participants’ opinion on whether they are satisfied with ICAO phraseology applicability is shown in Fig. 18.6.

Fig. 18.6

ICAO satisfaction rate

An important factor in investigating the crucial issue in miscommunication between operators is to scale whether the language barrier or the operators’ total load is the critical issue in miscommunication, participant opinions were more focused on the language barrier as the crucial factor.

Tables 18.1 and 18.2 below summarize the investigated descriptive characteristics of Likert-based questions in the questionnaire and the percentage of each statement, which provide a strong indication that language-based issues and how they are critical between operator’s communication in the current system are strongly related to cultural background and the lack of standard phraseology.

Table 18.1 Descriptive characteristics of the first part of the survey responses

Table 18.2 Descriptive characteristics of the second part of the survey responses

The participants were given the freedom to describe the most important factor affecting aviation communication in the final section of the questionnaire. The majority of the participants agreed with the factors mentioned in the questionnaire and mentioned some non-human based factors such as weather conditions. Although the participants mentioned language as a major issue affecting aviation communications, other important factors such as teamwork skills, operator’s workload, and better operating ergonomics were also introduced in this section.

18.4 Conclusion

Based on a distributed questionnaire that gave an overview of the operators’ opinions from experienced events and based on the current situation of aviation communication, the questionnaire focused on main aspects such as language-based issues which showed a crucial effect on aviation communication from the participant’s point of view. The study highlighted the most critical aspects in aviation communication and reflected the real issues in communication between operators.

Another critical issue raised by the questionnaire is the ICAO standard phraseology and its adaptability and applicability around the world, and how it would be affected if the optimal rate or exact phraseology were not maintained, which would significantly increase the rate of misunderstanding – one of the leading causes of aviation accidents and incidents.

The current authors of the study are going to conduct comprehensive research on automation effects on operators’ total loads including the communication load of pilots and ATCOs.