Comment Re:ATC communications (Score 1) 578
Not really. Air France pilots speak French when flying over France. Spanish pilots speak Spanish in Spain. Russians speak Russian in countries where Russian is spoken. Etcetera.
This has caused quite a few accidents already (for example, planes being cleared for take-off in the local language while another plane was crossing that runway completely unaware) but the practice continues, unfortunately. It's silly really: air traffic controllers speak English with foreign pilots, and the pilots speak English when abroad, but for some reason they insist on using their own language at home. Some even claim it's safer that way, go figure.