Originally Posted by
thegoderic
I seem to remember he talked about an accident a few years previously which he reckoned could have been prevented had the pilot of the plane that crashed been able to understand conversations in French between ATC and another flight.
Am i hallucinating or can someone remember the details?
25 May 2000. A Shorts 330 freighter entered the runway and collided with Air Liberte MD83 that had commenced its take-off run. One of the pilots of the Shorts was killed.
As for the rules - ATC communication must be either in English or in the language of the country where the ground station is located, so using French on French ATC frequencies is not breaking any rules. Whether or not it's a good idea to use French (or Spanish, or German, or Italian...) at an international airport is another matter.
As an aside, AFAIK Germany has an English-only rule for international airports.