Canada’s Forced Busing

Ici l’aeroport international de Montréal. Allo, Air Canada, vol deux cent soixante-quinze. Toutes les voies d’envoi sont fermées. Ne descendez pas. . . . Comment? Vous êtes anglophone? . . . Ne quittez pas, s’il vous plaît. . . . It’s for you Joe. . . . (Click, crackle, beep.) . . . This is Montreal International Airport calling Air Canada, Flight two seven five. All the runways are . . . What’s that? . . . Zut alors, Pierre, too late again.

A flight of fancy from Arthur Hailey’s latest? Not at all, according to the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association, which has been warning against the dangers of bilingual air traffic control ever since it was introduced by the federal government at five Quebec airports last summer. A pilot’s life is hard enough these days, argues Ken Maley, CALPA president, without the added complication of having to keep a phrasebook in the cockpit; the last thing one should have to worry about when bringing down a Boeing 707 on a crowded runway is whether tout droit means straight on or keep right.

JM

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John Muggeridge

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Ici l’aeroport international de Montréal. Allo, Air Canada, vol deux cent soixante-quinze. Toutes les voies d’envoi sont fermées. Ne descendez pas. . . . Comment? Vous êtes anglophone? . . . Ne quittez pas, s’il vous plaît. . . . It’s for you Joe. . . . (Click, crackle, beep.) . . . This is Montreal International Airport calling Air Canada, Flight two seven five. All the runways are . . . What’s that? . . . Zut alors, Pierre, too late again.

A flight of fancy from Arthur Hailey’s latest? Not at all, according to the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association, which has been warning against the dangers of bilingual air traffic control ever since it was introduced by the federal government at five Quebec airports last summer. A pilot’s life is hard enough these days, argues Ken Maley, CALPA president, without the added complication of having to keep a phrasebook in the cockpit; the last thing one should have to worry about when bringing down a Boeing 707 on a crowded runway is whether tout droit means straight on or keep right.