[leoedin]

I agree. Things like:

> where the mechanics who take the planes apart (completely) and put them back together (or almost) may not even be able to read or speak English.

Are completely American (or English-speaking anyway) centric and complete scare mongering. English may be the "language of aviation", but that doesn't mean that repair manuals are not allowed to appear in any other language. The picture the article paints is a bunch of idiotic foreigners staring at English instructions, unable to comprehend them.

Airbus is essentially a French and German company - do you think every maintenance technician and assembly technician on the assembly line speaks good English? It's not beyond the capabilities of either the big aircraft manufacturers or the large maintenance companies to translate the information their workers need into their local language. It also means you can employ the best people for the job, rather than just people who speak good English.

[nmrm2]

As far as I understand, the reason this is a problem is because the FAA requires English language proficiency.

Within that context, this is an anecdote about the ineffectiveness of the FAA at enforcing its regulations, which is troublesome regardless of whether that particular regulation makes any sense, because one typically imagines most regulations regarding aircraft maintenance are probably worth enforcing.

(fwiw, I agree with you that this particular regulation probably doesn't make sense, as long as manuals are available in the technician's language. And the article's tone is off-putting. But I think there's a sane and completely rational reason to be concerned by the fact that mechanics don't speak English. It's more of a canary (in light of relevant regulations) than an actual problem unto itself. The solution is probably to bring regulations into the 21st century, and then actually enforce them.)

[yarper]

Unfortunately it's not just the manuals that are in English.

The prior work is written up and signed off in English, the pilot/cabin tech logs will all be written up in English. The current AD/SBs (usually extra maintenance/fixes) will all be issued in English and so on.

Further to that you have to write the work up in English, and get it signed off and declared safe to fly in English too.

Other parts of the world already operate on non-English, e.g. Russia. They use the same aircraft we do but in an entirely different framework. However their framework does not necessarily apply if you want to get an aircraft cleared to fly in Europe (EASA) or the states (FAA).