The Seminar brought together all stakeholders from the aviation
industry, including civil aviation administrations, international
organizations, aviation language training centers, aviation language
test providers, airlines, and air navigation service providers.
Nicole Barrette, Technical Specialist (Training and Licensing standards)
and Dawn Flanagan, AELTS Manager, outlined the occurrences that led
up to the Seminar initiative: “In 1996, what was probably the worst
mid-air collision in recent air accident industry occurred over the
New Delhi area. Investigators in India concluded that one of the factors
at play was the lack of English language proficiency between the two
crews of the aircraft involved as they didn’t share a common language.”
In 1998, Indian officials presented a working paper to the ICAO
Assembly, leading to the establishment of the Organization’s PRICE
(Proficiency Requirements in Common English) Study Group. The
Study Group began to analyze incidents and accidents, and considered
the role of language proficiency in these. The results of their work were
Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) that were introduced
in four ICAO Annexes.