Flying in Blind

If you are about to take an international flight, and you are usually jitter about flying, then what you want to know about the captain of your flight that may calm you down a notch or two?

The pilot is well-trained in flying? He's very experienced to handle the emergency?

All right, those are in my mind too. A positive answer to either can make me feel better. It helps further if he's able to tell a few good jokes. Laugh, after in-flight red wine, is always able to sooth my nerve.

Then I watched this CNN report about the Air China Flight 981, flying from Beijing to New York's JFK International Airport:


(for the complete exchanges between the pilot and the controller, see this YouTube clip)

Okay, forget about telling jokes. And I don't even care if the captain were flying space shuttles before retiring to become a commercial pilot. From now on, I'd just pray like a hell that the captain of whatever flight I'll be on can speak damn English. Or at least understand it.

In case that isn't answered, then pray harder for the controller on the ground; better is he bilingual. Well, make it multilingual, just to play safe.

Is that clear?

That is NOT a question.