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DGCA directs airlines to make announcements in local lang.

 
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:49 pm    Post subject: DGCA directs airlines to make announcements in local lang. Reply with quote

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/soon-you-would-hear-local-sightseeing-announcements-on-flights/articleshow/67275339.cms

Soon, you would hear local sightseeing announcements on flights

Dec 27, 2018

Dear Passengers, we are flying over the statue of Unity or Taj Mahal: Air passengers will soon be hearing such announcements aboard flights within India as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked airlines to direct its pilots to make such in-flight announcements to ‘enhance awareness about heritage of India.’

The DGCA has also asked airlines to make announcements in local languages too. Airlines say that these suggestions are impractical and the DGCA should refrain from regulating private airlines beyond safety requirements.

“Use of local language to the extent possible, while making in flight announcements. To enhance awareness about cultural heritage of India, the pilot can make announcements about important monument or site (such as Taj Mahal, Konark Temple, Statue of unity etc),” said the order by the DGCA issued today.

Airlines, however, feel that the regulator should not get into passing orders beyond safety requirements.

“Impractical. We cannot program 25 different languages for announcements, system cannot handle so many,” said an airline official, who did not want to be identified.

“And govt has no business telling private airlines what kind of announcements to make, other than mandatory safety announcements. Even if one assumes it is possible to see such things from so high up,” the official added.

This is not the first time regulator has passed such orders. It has earlier asked airlines to keep newspapers and other reading material in vernacular language on flights.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Reminds me of a story my dad once told me...

A late uncle of mine used to be an ace pilot working for Indian Airlines (or IAC as it was known then) in the 1950s and 60s. He flew DC-3s and F-27s, and at 25 years of age, was one of the youngest pilots to get an instructor rating on the DC-3. His record probably still holds.
In addition to being a great pilot, this man, like many others then, was also fervently against Hindi. Remember that this was in the 1960s, when the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu was at its peak.

Back then, Indian Airlines flights in the south would have inflight announcements made only in English. On one occasion during a Madras - Coimbatore flight, my uncle who was the captain had a Hindi speaking MP as one of his passengers. Once the plane was airborne, this MP got into a fit and demanded to see the captain. The lead FA came into the cockpit and told my uncle about the problem. Since the person involved was an MP, my uncle had to, much against his wishes, go into the cabin and calm the man.

Upon asking the MP what the problem was, he very arrogantly asked my uncle how he could commit the crime of not making announcements in the national language, and how dare the announcements were made only in English. To this, my uncle calmly replied that it was imperative that safety announcements be made only in a language that most people understood. The MP got even angrier and made the ridiculous claim that everyone understood Hindi, and insisted that my uncle make an announcement in a language 'that everyone understood'. This was his undoing!
My uncle agreed, walked back into the cockpit and made an announcement to the cabin, entirely in chaste Tamil!

The MP was livid and demanded to see the captain again. Upon being asked by the MP, now seething with rage, what he was playing at, my uncle calmly replied that he was merely following the MP's order that 'the announcements be made in a language everyone understood'. This being Tamil Nadu it was Tamil, and not Hindi, that fitted the criteria.
The whole cabin erupted in laughter, and the MP sat sulking throughout the remainder of the flight. He did file a complaint against my uncle later but nothing came of it. Very Happy

Good luck to India's airlines for making announcements in the 25 official languages ! Razz
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