Kazakh pilot’s poor English sees plane land in Larnaca

[TallDutch]

Kazakh pilot’s poor English sees plane land in Larnaca instead of Israel


A KAZAKH plane on route to Tel Aviv from Astana was forced to land at Larnaca Airport because the Israeli authorities thought the captain was drunk, it was reported yesterday.

It was later established that the pilot could simply not speak English properly and sounded as if he was slurring his words.

According to Israeli television, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to escort the passenger plane from Kazakhstan, carrying 98 passengers, after its pilots failed to identify themselves to the control tower at Ben-Gurion Airport.

The aircraft eventually landed at Larnaca Airport, where the pilots were questioned for four hours. The plane was later allowed to return and land in Israel.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.ph ... 5&cat_id=1

[Stella_Caeli]

Wonder if he will meet the required ICAO Operational Level 4 of English by March 2008?

Kind regards,
Sebastian

[galaxy]

.... the pilot could simply not speak English properly.... the pilots were questioned for four hours. The plane was later allowed to return and land in Israel.

Only four hours to learn how to speak English ? I wished I was the pilot. 8)

[Zorba]

Amazing they let these kind of pilots fly a plane ... Let's hope it all gets better with the new regulations, like S_C mentioned already.

[TCAS_climb]

'Should do some training in the US... like Borat !