*This got tense...* With a wind so calm, I find senseless to instruct a go around and state the wind component. What do you think? Were the pilots really confused by this? Anyway the GO AROUND instruction was clearly instructed but they landed instead. Glad no one was hurt.

Hi everyone, this might come a bit late but this could clarify a few things. I work at Orly (as an ATC) and know both controllers that you can hear in this video. There are a few factors that led to this situation, of them which : • The male controller was on training and the French phraseology standards expects us to mention the wind for go-around clearances. In that case the wind was calm so I perfectly understand why he could have got rid of that anyways, but when you’re in your training phase, you tend to stick to « the basic rules », so yeah, I guess the wind instruction came out automatically of his mouth before he could even compute the data. • The tone might not be firm enough because of the same reason : training phase. • When the Inspection vehicle called TWR to say they vacated the runway, the controller got all hesitant because he didn’t know how to react given the situation : the Inspection vehicle reported out of the runway while it was barely vacating, and the plane cleared to go around kept going and landed. I guess at that time, that’s when the trainee looks at their instructor with a half-open mouth like « What the hell am I supposed to do now ? ». The instructor at that time then took over the mic and discussed with the pilot : that’s the female controller you can hear. • Tunisair (callsign « Tunair ») pilots all speak French, are used to Orly and usually are well-aware of the ongoing situation. I’m not defending anyone, or accusing the pilot of going against the rules, just stating a few facts that most likely have led to this misunderstanding between pilot and controller and giving you a little bit of a context. Cheers fellow aviation enthusiasts !

Cleared to go around runway 26 wind 320@2.

Giving the runway number and wind HAS to sound like a landing clearance. Shows the importance of BASIC radiotelephony...

I live in Norway. Where I live, we have practically zero international flights in this airspace, and all pilots are norwegian. Still all conversations are practiced in english, for the very few foreign pilots that appear sometimes.

Go around with runway number and wind info

it's very very dangerous when ATC fail to address an incorrect read back

Speaking in French denies the pilots of having situational awareness of what was going on via the frequency.

Just a go-around. With that French accent I understand the Tunisair’s problem. Go around with runway and wind and an accent is almost same tone.m as a cleared to land. The negative is also not clear. Instead of confirmation the other transmission comes through and Tower decided to talk to the inspection. The female atc is clear but not really fair. I guess caught in the moment.

putting the wind with the go around instructions confused the pilot , just simple tunis air go around i say again go around would have made him follow the atc. bad atc and bad cockpit communication

Crappy ATC. I’m an airline captain and if I hear the wind with a go around instruction I would have questioned it. The correct ATC instruction should have been “Tunis Air 716 go around I say again go around”

Sorry, tower, you never heard the flight acknowledge the go around. Tower is at fault as much as the flight.

World’s least clear “Go around” instruction. Hopefully the outcome of the safety report is better training for this ATC.

This is why standard CAP 413 phraseology is used in the UK... "Tunair6 go around I say again go around acknowledge". The use of the surface wind obviously confused the pilot as this is what's used on a landing clearance

Glad no one was hurt. There is plenty of blame to go around: - French ATC phraseology specifying wind speed in a go around instruction - French ATC not complying with their own phraseology by adding the runway number in the go around instruction - French ATC not escalating the tone and wording of the go around instruction after the second incorrect read back - The pilots not listening carefully to ATC and letting confirmation bias make them think they heard cleared to land ... twice - The pilots continuing at decision height when, by their own admission, they could see the vehicles still in the process of clearing the runway The supervisor lady who talked to the crew at the end spoke much more clearly than the male controller. I suspect if she was the controller on the radio, this would not have happened in the first place.

"Tunair 716, go around"...simple as that. No wind information needed.

How about ATC sticking to english so everyone can understand what's going on

"Go around!" needs to be commanded LOUD and CLEAR. ATC used a tone that was too casual. Of course the pilot got confused. 80% ATC fault.

"Tunair716 cleared to go aorund, wind 200 at 2kts, contact ground when off the runway"

ATC should articulate "Go around" much more clearly, not to mention confirm acknowledgement.

Even the french should use english in atc communication

When it takes three playbacks to fully understand a set of totally confusing instructions ordering a go-around, with windspeed instructions attached, the blame lies largely with ATC. I had no problem understanding the comms from the Tunisian pilot.

to be honest, that "go around" sounded a lot like "clear to land". Then in one breath added the wind to it, I think this was a very dangerous mistake by ATC. Not the pilot

ATC didn't cancel clearance, gave wind direction on a go-around (non-standard), and let 716 get one minute away from final with inspection on the active. Very poor work by ATC.

I really don't blame the pilots as much as the tower controller. He heard the pilot reply "cleared to land" twice, but didn't reinforce the go-around instruction any further.

That was squarely the controllers fault. He buried the go-around instruction in irrelevant information and when the pilot responded "clear to land" he didn't correct him with strong commands. Additionally, his accent could make understanding instructions very difficult for non-French pilots.

Interesting variations of English....

What reason to include the wind component. It was ONLY 2 KNOTS. Never have heard wind speed and direction paired with go around instructions before.

The guy controllers fault. Really bad communications.

Probably ATC fault for adding the wind factor. Glad all safe. Thanks for usual top class clip .

In my opinion it was definately the ATC's fault, they gave too much information in that instruction, a simple 'Go around' even would have been better

I think it is mainly ATC fault, why give winds and no heading/altitude for the go-around instead? And the second time the controller tells the pilot to go-around, he didn't even mention the callsign of the aircraft he was talking to...

This is why I like the way UK controllers make you confirm of the go around “Speedbird 123 Go around, I say again, Go around, acknowledge” it is so much easier to understand

I wouldn't say the controller sounded angry, just French.

They should really ban native language on frequency for critical communication. This would help with the awareness of the pilots firstly and would hopefully help with the awful French accent. Idiotic ATC, which was fully at fault here.

Veery confusing to hear wind direction on a goaround call.

They make my blood boil, speaking French to other traffic and ground vehicles on a tower frequency. Who the hell gives a wind read out for a go around. Totally ATC at fault!!!

I feel like the go around was blended into the flow of the sentence at the first time he was told. A well spaced and pronounced go around before the rest of the instructions would've made things a lot clearer in my opinion

OMG so many errors! ATC communications are designed to tolerate errors, but not this many: 1. 2:13 ATC should inform Inspection 1 that traffic is arriving in 3 minutes 2. 2:48 ATC should inform Inspection 1 that traffic is arriving in 2 minutes 3. 2:53 Inspection 1 should clarify its required time better (maybe, recording is poor) At 4:02 ATC should say "Tunair 716 go around" instead of "Tunair 716 goaroundthewind 320 degrees 2 knots": 4. ATC should say "go around" clearly without eliding it with "the wind" 5. ATC should not say the wind at all in this instruction 6. 4:07 Since the instruction was unclear, Tunair should say "confirm" or "say again" instead of "clear to land runway 26" At 4:11 ATC should say "Negative Tunair 716 Go Around I Say Again. Go. Around." instead of "Negat... Uh... Uh... Negative. Go around runway 26 wind 320 degrees 2 knots": 7. ATC shouldn't interrupt the word "Negat" 8. Since readback was dangerously wrong, ATC should use a slower and clearer voice this time 9. ATC should not say the runway in this instruction 10. ATC should not say the wind in this instruction (Added) 11. 4:21 (recording of Inspection 1 is poor, but assuming this is him) Inspection 1 should have heard the misunderstanding of errors 4-10 and should not take the frequency to say anything. (He should, however, make every effort to vacate the runway immediately, which perhaps he did.) 12. 4:28 Since the instruction was unclear, Tunair should say "confirm" or "say again" instead of saying nothing. Or, if no time to confirm anymore, Tunair should initiate his own go around due to failed communication of landing clearance. 13. 4:28 Since first go around readback was wrong, and second time was not read back, ATC should repeat Go Around instruction a third time. 14. 4:58 Second controller should not say "Cleared" in "you were Cleared for going around procedure". Even though the incident already happened, this shows that misleading phraseology is widespread in this tower and not limited to the first controller. 15. 5:07 Tunair's responses to ATC after landing seem to suggest that he had a clue before landing that his landing clearance might not be right. In that case, he should have initiated his own go around, even if he never heard the go around from ATC.

For what it's worth at the 5:20 mark the pilot says he saw the trucks "vacated the runway". Not that it make much of a difference in the outcome. While the controller did call for a go-around the pilot read back the landing clearance and the controller never followed up fully, and never got an acknowledgement. This is a clear case of "a message unacknowledged is a message unreceived." This falls fully on the controller. No matter what, failure to get a read back on the go-around full falls on them. Their highest priority should have been getting an acknowledgement of the go-around, no way around that. I think upon examination of this incident the controllers involved will wish they and not the pilots would have done something different.

so I have a question. Why didn't the tower controller insist on correct readback after giving go-around clearance and not getting a readback. I can kindof understand why the a320 misheard "cleared to land" instead of "goaround", probably due to expectations. But there is a reason why a clearance should be given at the END of a transmission, after wind info. like, "XXX wind 180 degress 12 knots go around", not the other way round.

Tunisia (along with Algeria) is a country that is largely bilingual Arabic & French and had close relations with France (as former colony and francophone country). I'm surprised when they didn't understand English instructions, that they wouldn't communicate in French to the pilots.

My policy is never land until you clearly hear “cleared to land”. ATC definitely could have done better, but ultimately, understanding and following ATC orders is the crew’s responsibility.

5:44 pilot: "so will i, idiots"

Actually, the title should rather be "A320 lands while cleared to go-around". Being french, I can hear the runway inspection crew say that they vacated the runway before the aircraft touched down ;)

I thought there was some regulation passed years ago after an aircraft collision because ATC was speaking multiple languages

As an unworthy sofa pilot, I am more than glad to help French inspectors how to evaluate that report. An instruction was issued, the aircraft did not read back properly, that happens all the time. The next go around instruction was actually NOT addressed towards the flight - there was no callsign at the front of the message, also the message was broken apart. This is a critical moment of flight, almost before touchdown,these "eeee-eeeeeeergh" chokin sounds are just no help. No further comm towards TAR was initiated afterwards he read back the clearence incorrectly. That is my two cents.

I -- Ooo -- Wish -- oo -- ATC -- ee -- would speak English all times so pilots wouldn't get disassociated from the ATC calls. Or think ATC is not very fluent in English and start to make their own assumptions. Either case it is distracting. Still though big mistake to "assume" you are cleared without clearly hearing the clearance. Great video and showcase as always !

Shouldn't the atc say his callsign before telling him about wrong readback and to go around?

Several mistakes and problems here in terms of human factors. 1. Non-ICAO standard language used for ATC-pilot communication. Common awareness is nearly equal zero, if pilots don't speak french. (I know this is done in many different parts of the world, but is a problem.) 2. Wind instructions with a go around instructions are missleading, especially on short final where pilots are really really focused on flying the aircraft. 3. Wrong anticipation on an instruction, without clear understanding. 4. Probably a huge difference of experience between captain and FO. Which could result in a situation where the FO didn't tell the captain that he's wrong. (reminds of several accidents around the world... and is still a huge problem in cockpits... We had such an incident latelly, which was corrected on ground...)

I get that they misunderstood the first instruction but when ATC says "negative, go around", you really don't have an excuse anymore.

Thanks for the translations. The highlight indicating who is transmitting helps too.

What type of ATC he is where he gives wind information on Go Around but not in the time of landing clearance as done for the next traffic 45GJ 05:55. Btw why he was singing that song from 04:33 - 04:46 where he should had asked TUNAIR716 again for GoAround.

If he did´nt hear "Go around" he could not possibly have heard "Cleared to Land". He did´nt even reconfirm... That´s pure negligence. :-/

I'm no pilot but I'd say this is on both ATC and the pilot, with some possible radio issues. The pilot confirmed cleared to land and ATC corrected him. ATC did not confirm that the instructions to go around we're received. This is why instructions are read back.

We are now being bombarded with ads unfortunately. Two ridiculous ones in a row at the beginning. Thanks for posting!

At 5:15 he says ''we saw the people, er, the two trucks just vacated from the runway er 26''

ATC tell him: go around, the pilot will hear clear to land, AND windcheck. So after the 1st go around call, i heard no good NEGATIVE from ATC, but only a sort of negat…. so i can see where the problem started… (4:00)

Standard phraseology. “ABC123 Go-around, I say again go around”

He (pilot) did not hear the “go around” according to his answer to the controller anger, but he can hear the wind direction and speed and also the runway number (designation). The big question mark, why the controller need to say the wind and runway instead of just “go around.. go around..”

The controller can say "Go around" 200000 times, if the pilot never hears "go around" then they were never actually told. Radios are not 100% reliable. If you are concentrating on something else, like landing the plane without breaking it, it is easy for the pilots to miss something like that. This is why there needs to be a clear, reliable way to signal the pilot to "go around." Flashing the approach lights would work nicely, because that is the one thing you'll know the pilot is looking at. Did the go around order even reach the plane? Is it clearly audible in the CVR?

Controllers are really week there. WHO gives the wind during go- around instructions?! It is confusing. Plus the controller should change the tone of his voice to alert the crew and repeat as many times as necessary. Controllers need to be reprimanded as well as the pilot, who didn't pay enough attention. A Classical case of psychological deafness . Pilot hears what he wants (or expects) to hear.

Something like "Tunair 716, wind 320 degrees, 2 knots, runway 26, clear to go around."

So many issues with this, 1. they should not have been speaking French on frequency... Then the pilots would have understood more of the situation. 2. after giving the incorrect readback, the controller failed to properly correct them. 3. the woman wasn't listening - the pilots told her twice they heard cleared to land. They should have indicated that was what they read back as well, but either way I'm sure it'll all be sorted once investigators listen to the tapes.

A better instruction would be to give a go around instruct twice, Goaround I say again go around, Only then after the crew acknowledge or visibly going around, maybe give wind, I do not think the wind is so vital because the wind is surface wind and its light, The aircrafts on board wind would give a better realtime go around wind. The pilot didn't hear the go around and assumed it was a cleared to land because the instruction contained wind info, Seems he was reacting to what he was expecting rather than what was being instructed. - Confirmation Bias is a killer. The pilot replied clear to land so the controller should have been more clearer and repeat the instruction until he got it.

In my opinion ATC was at fault here, he didn't get a readback the second time (why would he, he didn't say their callsign), so he should have called them again. Also, using both french and english would be super confusing if I was a pilot flying into that airport. In this incident, the Tunisair crew might have heard that the trucks are still on the runway if they would have talked in english.

i clearly heard "go around", and when the first go around was answered with"clear to land" the controller clearly stated "negative, go around". the wind speed and direction are not needed, but the "go around" was plain and clear.

no matter if he didn´t understand the words go around. There was no " cleared to land" instruction... without landing clearance with thos exact words, the pilot needs to initiate the go around on his own with the words " going around"

The controller made a good move by saying "call me on short final." I heard Go around clearly both times. And the pilot saw the vehicle on the runway which he admits. I wouldn't gamble with an aircraft like that. Sounds like gotta-get-there-itus. That being said, controllers are responsible for their runways and communications, including getting clear readbacks from pilots. In this case, it sounded like two transmissions at once (4:19) which blocked the readback, but this is where the controller should step in and say "I say again, TAR716 Go around!" The controller also never told the inspection crew about traffic until they were a minute away! I realize that that could be a good amount of distance, but I've never seen a runway inspection take only one minute before. He needed to paint the picture for everyone. And then he practically froze up when it was happening. No good. 50/50

french accent on top of wind direction doesn't help at all. just adds to more confusion

"Really, really dangerous" lady ATC sounded like she was disciplining a naughty child

In my opinion it was the controller's fault because he gave wind information and runway number when he instructed the go around. A few moments later the lady said he "cleared you for go around procedure" but a go around is not a clearance, it's an instruction.

ATC should have been more clear no wind report needed when informing to go around.

Well.. Firstly I didn't know that Frech is a ICAO approved language to use but I have to say one thing...As a person who doesn't speak French nor Spanish I always feel very confused when listening to frequencies in countrues speaking those languages(eg. Mexico, Brazil, Spain, France and others) because I don't understand what's happening on the airport which lowers my overall understanding of the current situation on the airport. I can imagine that the Tunisair pilot was kinda "confused" as well as me(at least a bit more than if he was landing somewhere where they speak English only). Also.. Why the hell would you give current wind during a go around procedure and thus make the pilot feel he just misunderstood the clearance. Secondly - he clearly repeated "cleared to land" and after that there was no direct disapproval from the ATC followed by a proper readback by the pilot. The ATC couldn't have been sure about what the pilot understood. I do believe this was the fault of the ATC, they should have made sure that the Tunisair pilot understood the go around and not ignoring the wrong readback.

this is why we dont include the winds in a go around, it should be "Go Around, i say again, go around, acknowledge"

Dunno why but the light on the ground car at 2:42 cracked my up. I btw love these videos so thank you for your good job every time.

ATC so unprofessional. Why do they use French on radio? Everyone on the frequency does not understand French. And it’s so disturbing you hear two languages on radio.

The ATC should always communicate in English. Switching between the languages creates confusion.

4:36 drowning in a deep swimming pool be like

In a situation like this the "go around" command should be repeated 3 times to make sure the pilot understands. In this case the "go around" was lost in the other information.

Air Traffic Controller Fault.

If the atc inform go around why he said the wind? This confused the pilots i guess

Oh, so ATC has been well trained in filing reports, surely not in communication with pilots. First time I heard phrase "you are cleared to go around" with wind data. LFPO is quite busy airport yet they stick to French. Same problem was when ground control cleared KLM and EZY for pushback in Dutch at EHAM and the result was tail-to-tail collision not that long ago.

You can not thought,you have to be sure,if you hesitate, you have to ask again for conformation.Tower tried to be polite at first:)

ATC informed TAR716 that 26 was under inspection and to maintain min approach speed and report short final to try and get TAR716 in. To ANY pilot this means there are vehicles on the runway and pilot awareness should be at the highest as a go-around may be coming. Then the GO AROUND comes. TAR716, hearing wind information thinks that means Clear to Land. Then comes NEGAT, followed by negative, GO AROUND and wind information again. I Have to disagree with most of the comments here, Go Around means Go Around no matter what is said afterwards. This pilot lost situational awareness and landed the plane based on some wind information totally ignoring all other information. Landing with vehicles on the runway most certainly leads to catastrophe. I usually side with pilots but in this case, NEGAT.

So poor from atc, why on earth would he give him wind direction etc on a go around ?

The wind information made it sound like a cleared for landing. Especially when you have two people for whom English is a second language. In a go around just say "[aircraft id] GO AROUND" so it's clear.

Definitely seems odd to give wind info on a go-around, especially considering that when they cleared the next plane to actually land, they didn't give any wind info at all!

To me this is 100% ATCs fault: 1) They created an unsafe situation by talking to the inspection crew in French. While Tunisair was notified about the runway inspection in process, they did not have full situational awareness since conversations between the tower and the crew were in French. IATA official language is English and all communications on channels that feature any non-native local language speakers should be in English. 2) ATC never got a correct read back of the go-around order. They should have continued to say "go around" until they got a correct read back. And each time with increasing urgency. 3) ATC distracted Tunisair with the wind readout and muddled the transmission by saying the most crucial piece of info without any emphasis. I'm not a pilot but I see from these ATC videos why the pilot thought he was cleared to land, since generally the calls are "Cleared to land, wind is ___." - The only thing Tunisair did "wrong" was fail to understand 2 radio transmissions that were given in a poor fashion and never read back correctly. It is ATC's responsibility to make their requests clear.

Why do I care what the wind is if I'm going around? Doesn't make sense.

This is the first time I've ever heard Communications in anything other than English. There is a reason why English is the only language to be spoken in air traffic. And when you say go around you don't just say it as a oh, by the way, we might like you to go around, and here's the wind speed and the runway we've already told you to land on. The other one I cannot figure out is why did they tell the inspection team it was all right to be on the runway if they had already given clearance for a landing. I just recognized why they're speaking French instead of English. There in Canada. Only French Canadians are so arrogant as to ignore standard procedure across the rest of the Civilized world. They almost killed people when they forced the metric system and they were half loading fuel on aircraft.

Oh it's nice to see my country's flag carrier airline on your channel ! keep up ! :)

How about French controllers start speaking english on frequency?

How about the Controllers learn some english. Very bad french accent.

Doesn’t matter if he heard the wind direction. He clearly heard “GO-AROUND” so he should’ve obeyed.

I hope Inspector 1 had a good reason to be on the runway that long. When I inspect a runway, I’m quite clear to tower for any reason to stop. And as soon as I do, tower usually sends planes around immediately. There’s some ‘splaining to do by all three parties.

VFR now includes landing i guess

I thought English was the global mandatory language of aviation, it is for science.

It had been a long flight. The pilots were tired and had already gone around once. They saw the trucks leaving the runway and decided not to go around again for no reason.

He Said "go around" twice. Orly airport has one runway for arrivals and one for takeoffs. the pilots know that, , so i you hear "goaround".....If you think just a little bit ( or change job...), you should ask at least for confirm...plus, most tunisians understand french so thats no excuse