Even into the '70s, the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport were known far and wide as a short-tempered lot. They not only expected one to know one's gate parking location but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a PanAm 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways Concord (call sign "Speedbird 206") after landing:
Speedbird 206: "Good morning Frankfurt. Speedbird 206 clear of the active runway."
Ground: "Guten Morgen! You vill taxi to your gate!"
The British Airways Concorde pulled onto the main taxiway and stopped.
Ground: "Schpeedbird, do you not know vare you are goink?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up the gate location now."
Ground (with impatience) "Schpeedbird 206, haff you nefer flown to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (cooly): "Yes. Several times in 1944 when I dropped lots of heavy things, but I didn't stop."
JCam
Loc: MD Eastern Shore
Good one! Thanks for posting. I thought it was going to be another Aircraft Carrier vs. Lighthouse tale.
hasslichhog wrote:
Even into the '70s, the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport were known far and wide as a short-tempered lot. They not only expected one to know one's gate parking location but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a PanAm 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways Concord (call sign "Speedbird 206") after landing:
Speedbird 206: "Good morning Frankfurt. Speedbird 206 clear of the active runway."
Ground: "Guten Morgen! You vill taxi to your gate!"
The British Airways Concorde pulled onto the main taxiway and stopped.
Ground: "Schpeedbird, do you not know vare you are goink?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up the gate location now."
Ground (with impatience) "Schpeedbird 206, haff you nefer flown to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (cooly): "Yes. Several times in 1944 when I dropped lots of heavy things, but I didn't stop."
Even into the '70s, the German air controllers at ... (
show quote)
This is a joke, right? I worked every day with the Controllers at Frankfurt Approach and Tower for three years from 1964 through 1967 and never once heard their spoken English to resemble what you portray here. English is the language of air traffic control and they spoke it very well. I don't doubt that this happened as they did have a reputation as you said.
RRS wrote:
This is a joke, right? I worked every day with the Controllers at Frankfurt Approach and Tower for three years from 1964 through 1967 and never once heard their spoken English to resemble what you portray here. English is the language of air traffic control and they spoke it very well. I don't doubt that this happened as they did have a reputation as you said.
Totally a joke. Not real. I guess it's possible since the pilot might be as young as 46 in 1970 when the 747 was first put into service.
Thanks, I'm old and I thought that my memory was starting to fail me!
This is a true story along those lines. One of my mentors was an Account Executive in a large insurance brokerage. During the war he was a gunner in an American bomber that was shot down over Germany. He was the sole survivor and after being captured he was beaten by the SS and then transferred to a POW camp. In the late 70’s he had to go to London on an account and while clearing customs a British customs worker began an over-enthusiastic search of his bag. My mentor said: “You weren’t that meticulous in looking at my bag in ‘44.” The worker,who was roughly the same age, started folding everything up and returning it to its place and said: “My apologies sir. Welcome back to Britain.”
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