Warns Of Potential Downsides

This week, International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) Secretary General John Sheehan cited a number of potential negative effects on the worldwide general aviation community, stemming from the forthcoming international language proficiency requirements. Speaking at the Language Proficiency Symposium in Montreal, Sheehan suggested alternative courses of action in the implementation of the new requirements.

"Inadequate preparation to test pilots and air traffic controllers within many States will thwart the intent of the ICAO standard designed to bring safe, intelligible communications to international civil aviation," said Sheehan. "Our sampling of States' testing preparedness indicates few are fully ready to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of aviation personnel that will require certification."

An ICAO standard requiring demonstrated language proficiency for air traffic controllers and pilots operating internationally is set to take effect on March 5, 2008. At that time aviation personnel must be highly proficient in either the language of the State of operation, or English.

"Few or remote testing facilities, excessive testing fees, and lack of adequately qualified testing personnel are all matters for concern," said Sheehan. "The time and expense required for the more than one million general aviation pilots to be trained and tested to the high levels specified will have a significant impact on our community. This could lead to a substantial reduction of the number of pilots in areas of the world where sovereign boundaries are frequently crossed, such as Europe."

Sheehan went on to ask ICAO and States to: delay implementation until testing protocols and facilities were universally available; prioritize implementation of the requirements, testing airline pilots and air traffic controllers first; or provide grandfather rights for private pilots operating under visual flight rules (VFR) for a three year period. IAOPA has previously petitioned ICAO to eliminate or reduce the high level of English proficiency for VFR operations.

IAOPA represents the interests of general aviation (GA) through AOPA affiliates in 66 countries of the world, comprising more than 470,000 GA and aerial work pilots and aircraft operators. The Council was formed in 1962 to provide a voice for GA in world aviation forums. GA encompasses four-fifths of all civil aircraft and two-thirds of all pilots worldwide.

FMI: www.iaopa.org, www.icao.int