American Airlines Pilot Gets Petty Over Radio Phraseology Reprimand

For a lesson on proper aviation terminology, watch the cockpit scene from "Airplane!". And don't call me Shirley.

Point to ponder, Doctors bury their mistakes. Pilots are buried with their mistakes. When procedures are in place, they must be followed, otherwise innocent people might possibly die.

This pisses me off!
Everyone, from time to time, becomes a little too relaxed with the use of proper procedures and it’s up to the other Pilot and/or the controller to bring us back! There’s no need to act like an ass when it happens!
I’ve noticed over the last decade a divergence from proper radio, phraseology and discipline! If it takes a dozen pilot deviations to get us back on track…..so be it.

I was a controller for almost 30 years and was a “victim” of something very similar to this. I was running the final approach sector at a major airport and had a Southwest Airlines 737 established on the localizer and level at 3000 feet. I cleared the aircraft for the ILS approach, the pilots acknowledged, and then I switched them to the tower.

A couple of days later, I was called to the supervisors’ office and told that I was decertified and would have to complete remedial training because I violated the minimum vectoring altitude with that flight. Apparently, a random audit caught the operation and the quality assurance office pointed out that the pilot didn’t use their call sign when they read back the clearance and I didn’t do anything when the aircraft started to descend on the approach. They claimed that a “clearance not acknowledged is a clearance not received” and that I failed to ensure the safety of the flight. I successfully argued that it should be a pilot deviation, if anything, because the last clearance read back with the call sign was to intercept the localizer and maintain 3000.

Long story short, I’m sure that the controller didn’t want to be disciplined because the pilot was too lax with his phraseology and, if it were me, I would have told the pilot that. “Our QA department doesn’t have anything better to do than try to catch us not getting complete read backs with full call signs.”

I would rather have someone try to enforce proper communications protocols - then go lax and diminish effectiveness. Practice - practice.

American 1-4-7-9 must have thought he was the only aircraft in the sky. If they want to act silly on their own time, that's one thing, but gambling the safety of passengers is a no-go in my book.

Arrogance and laziness has no place in a cockpit. Get with the program or get out. We all know you're a hotshot pilot, we all are...

Phraseology intends to provide proper communication and understanding quickly and in a disaster preventing way.
Communication=Message Sender-Message Receiver-Receiver “reads back” -sender understands the message that was sent was received

I suspect (but cannot prove) I have been "reading back" IFR clearances over the years, longer than most, if not all, of the participants in this "thread". I suspect (but cannot prove) I have served as defense counsel for air-crew before FAA/NTSB "Administrative Law" judges longer than most, if not all, of the participants in this "thread". I base my conclusion on the "last straw" of the individual's behavior, who stated " "I HAVN'T THE TIME" when asked to dicuss an aviation safety issue. At this point I must disagree with the fellow poster, who suggested the individual should be handed a job application for HOME DEPOT. NO NO NO! When I am in HOME DEPOT I sure as hell do not want to run across someone I need for service, with a psychiatric make-up like that.

Finally a controller who is holding a pilot responsible for using his callsign and flight number. Kudos to the controller!!! I can't believe the number of "professional" pilots who don't use their callsign and/or flight number on every transmission. Could you imagine being a controller trying to keep over 50 airplanes straight and no one used their call sign or flight number? Or what about having two different airlines with the same flight number? Asinine that this pilot cops an attitude for being held accountable to his bad behavior. I know we can all get busy during our flights, but proper phraseology is basic piloting 101. Be professional and use your call sign and flight number on every radio transmission......and stop playing games on guard frequency with sounds and unnecessary comments.....guard frequency is for emergencies....not for playing childish unprofessional games.

It sounds as if the controller wants to insure that there is a clear record on the tape in case there is a review for whatever reason. And in this day and age who can blame him?

The PIC and SIC were wrong. If it was the SIC Talking the PIC should have instructed to include their call sign and vice versa.

The largest failure in aviation is communication. ATC has a handbook (FAA ORDER 7110,65 as amended) what the ACTer MUST say in all communications. No such document exists for pilots and that's why you have runway incursions and airplanes takeoff/landing in the wrong place. And for those of you who will note the phraseology in the Aeronautical Information Manual - the AIM is not regulatory - it's a suggestion. The 7110.65 must ne followed or the controller is on the carpet.

From the Order: 1−1−1. PURPOSE OF THIS ORDER
This order prescribes air traffic control procedures and phraseology for use by persons providing air traffic control services

"Flight crew arguing with ATC" is one of my favorite Youtube sub-genres, along with "Tourists getting yelled at by the guardians at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier"

What a rotten attitude from the AA pilots. Try that in European airspace and see where that gets you…

There is an abundance of room for improvement in the way that people communicate yet if someone attempts to help them communicate better then they get really upset.

With the volume of traffic and similarities in call signs and runway headings, the fact that Captain Ego McTenderFeelers couldn't allow the controller, who was absolutely in the right, to "win", because don't you know that we should all perceive airline pilots upon the same pedestal which lawyers and doctors prance upon above us common folk?

As a commercial pilot and A&P, this attitude reminds me of the bass-akwards cultural hierarchy that these guys do everything to perpetuate, because they know more than anyone, deep down, that an untrained octogenarian has a pretty good chance of landing an airplane in one piece if the pilot takes an unannounced nap during a flight. If that same octogenarian was in a maintenance hangar and the A&P has a grabber, what do you think the odds are of that same untrained elderly person stepping in to solve a #2 engine EGT fluctuation anomaly only observed at full power below 67 KIAS?

It's irrefutable, trained monkeys are capable of wiggling the sticks in order to keep an aircraft level, as well as for a laundry list of performance maneuvers that I'd venture to guess most airline pilots (aka FMS Managers) are no longer capable of completing to standards without a couple hours of refresher training. I know the culture is a result of the US Military's officer pilot corps and enlisted maintainers, but there are some nations which realized decades ago that the individuals who have been educated and demonstrated a higher level of critical thinking and problem solving skills should be the ones troubleshooting and maintaining, while the lesser gifted, let's just call them monkeys, should be out in the cockpit to wiggle sticks, push buttons, and not have a pissy pants mantrum if they decide that they are too cool to follow the rules that keep everyone safe and get called out for being not as cool as they think they are.

I know, this is a broad brush I'm painting with, but this type of asinine, narcissistic, self serving BS always triggers me because I've dealt with it for the entirety of my 30+ year career in this industry. It's idiots like this who should have been easily identified and either permanently corrected or handed a Home Depot employment application on their way out the door (no offense to Home Depot or their staff, I WILL work for you someday!). Imagine if this idiot was in the left seat instead of Sully the day that Airbus went from an airliner to a rotisserie oven to a water park ride within a span of 3 minutes! Do you think he wasn't railing against that controller to his FO between calls? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's pretty much the opposite of a sterile cockpit environment. He would have been so distracted with the details of his sophomoric radio calls to make sure the controller knew who was higher on the totem pole in his head, he wouldn't have realized that both engines lost power before he would have been forced down into a far less accomodating area of the city.

"It's not worth my time"... Obviously, nor would it be a useful use of the controller's time because he's one of those guys that have made the conscious decision that they are no longer learning, they know everything, so what could anyone ever teach him that he doesn't already know? Luckily the more cognitively capable maintainers will make sure he never faces a real world in-flight emergency that there's no section in the Emergency Checklist to follow. Otherwise, this static adolescent would end up killing himself, his crew, and anyone unlucky enough to be booked on the flight that the dispatcher planned and loaded into the FMS for him to trace the line with the little airplane with....

Please.... Pleeeaaase read this and respond! Come on Capt. Ego McTenderFeelers, tell me how great you are and how everyone else is the problem!!

............. (as most of the current US youth are." That's a petty and sloppy generalization of our youth. Unwarranted.

Obviously bored with his job, he needs to be sacked!

Appears to be a clear case of gross lack of professionalism... Inexcusable and unacceptable from any pilot let alone one in the left seat of a commercial airline like American.

I'm surprised there are no comments about the pilot ignoring the "suggestion" to get a phone call. I doubt that is going to help his case.

Wouldve loved to hear what his Chief Pilot had to say about this

I'm not going to make an excuse for the pilots, but I suspect this has less to do with the content and more to do with the tone. The controller sounded pissed off right from the start, and shortly thereafter had good cause to be pissed off. However, I'm glad to see a controller insisting on proper calls no matter if it upsets pilots or not. I'm not glad to see pilots acting like brats having temper tantrums.

To my earlier script. having heard the Audio of the event. I feel it is also returning to the thinking. Are we (ATC) here because you are up there or are you (Pilots) because we are down here. ATC own the airspace they control. Departures own more than Approach who by their title, have more headaches then other controllers. The Phoenix APP was under work load stress and going by voice tones, felt he was losing the authority of the job title. Also I wouldn't be surprised if he was under supervision by the STAC in an attempt to add the APP rating to his licence. Mind set and regressive behaviour wanting to hear what he's learned in study for his position and therefore, wanted A B C D in that order, any change like F before A, upsets one's thought control generating a sense of not being in CONTROL at the workstation and that leads to aggression. Being a Controller on the high end of the promotions chain, brings about a lot of inner doubt at to; am I really able to do this job? When those thoughts enter, then no. Go back to being an area controller for a bit, more study then step up to the APP Cell. Approach Controllers have a thin volume of airspace to work with. The area to terminal hand-off point to the MAP or five miles from eh runway threshold, where ADC 1 takes control of the arriving Aero. I've hear approach get into mind set working envenomate where A comes before B and so on. Any upset to the thinking process is a sense of losing the mindset of the job. Like an instructor going off at student because they are not holding 4500', being 70 off that level in level flight. ILS +?? -0' on the LOC. But when an ATS employee gets upset at believing the control aspect isn't being respected, then Controller has to be flexible, asking the Pilot is that was from AA1749 then when confirmed, sating please state your Flight number with every reply. Often here at a training airport, ADC 1 will advise. Caution I have two aircraft with similar calling's. ANN and AAN, listen out. This entire event with AA 1749 one can learn how ATS personal work and are easily upset. This trend is not only happening Aviation, but is other employment fields, it must be something in the water we drink!

It's interesting to me ... I'm a commercial rated pilot ... not IFR ... but I do get paid to fly people from here to there now and then. (Just a little background) I've read the majority of this post and even after 50 plus years of flying I've never had a problem with the tower or ATC but I have learned a valuable lesson reading this article. I've often replied without using my "ID" without a problem ... It won't happen again.

considering the number of near misses in and around airports with push back,tarmac instructions,take off and landngs,it seems keeping in accordance with known proper communications between the atc and the pilot is imperative..it should not be a joking matter,nor a matter of someone having a bad day..even the ground personnel who keep in touch with pilots use certain terminology..it universal..the pilot should apologize and the atc person should as well for the misunderstanding..those little "misunderstandings" can and do cause serious accidents..proper procedures matter and are there for a reason..

What about the often used phrase "copy that"? Is this proper terminology in aviation or police communication? Or is it something that Hollywood uses. Copy that? What have you copied? Read back what was said to you so it is clear what you have heard.

Who keeps down voting all the critical comments about this total winner of a guy!? Hmmmmmm We may may just have gotten through!!

Interesting reading everyones comments. I am a surgeon and in medicine we have taken our safety improvements from the airline industry with the goal of reducing errors and improving patient safety. Before making the incision and before the patient goes to sleep we have very specific "time outs" to make sure we all understand the variables to ensure patient safety and reduce errors. We don't write abbreviations which may be confusing especially in dosing medications. We do this because we believe the aviation industry is the leader in safety and any deviation from whats required is unacceptable. Batting 0.400 in baseball is great, not so much in medicine and aviation.

This is another example of the extreme workload of controllers. Not only do they have assign runways, flight levels, spacing, headings and properly communicate TO the pilots they have to verify that their communication was correctly received FROM the pilots. For controllers, every day is a bad day to quit sniffing glue.

How about everyone stick to aviation and leave the politics, woke or not, out of the discussion.

I am not a pilot and my experience on aircraft is limited to my time as a passenger. My response to any pilot shortcutting phraseology is one word: Tenerife.

The controller should have advised the pilot to call them on the ground. Reprimanding the pilot over the air was just another power trip by the controller to show that he was 'the boss'. Both parties f***ed up in this case!

There are certain radio calls that need to meet a "legal area" and in those, the full call sign MUST be said. ATC let's us get away with a lot, but when they ask for the callsign, realize that you are probably in the "legal area" and they need it not only to make sure the correct aircraft is responding but to meet the legal requirements being recorded.
In this case, a professional pilot being non-professional.

All pilots deviate from standard phraseology at times. Such as dropping the ATC facility name after initial check in for expediency or saying your call sign at the end of a read back of a list of instructions instead of at the beginning. However, dropping the call sign or runway assignment is never acceptable.

Did you notice that EVERY comment in this thread received a negative thumbs down? What does that say about the professionalism exhibited here ....

I think it is an ACIO directive. In Australia, ATP's operating in the AMMM FIR have changed their wording with ATC. Like "Contact Brisbane on 33.35 has gone back to; on 133.dacimal 35. Other relaxed replies have changed too, more inline with the Countries FAR versions phraseology. Many years ago, like 1975? FLYING's Dick Collins wrote an article on how pilots were making up their own reply's, one pilot used the term Good Buddy. Besides the use of Ahaaa, for almost an hour! One pilot spent three minutes of reply and meant very little with something that could have been said in 50 seconds. I think ATS units world wide have complained to ICAO who have issued a directive to the member's Air Transport Units to step on the changes creeping into use by pilots.

Pilot-controller datalink avoids this sort of situation.

ATC voice communication has always been problematic and error-prone due to either human, or technology issues.

Technology to the rescue.

He was probably mad about DEI and was like I'm not using woke phraseology.