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The IH school that I directed had a contract to teach Libyan Arab Airline employees and the air traffic controllers at Tripoli airport. As
For example, as a general rule it was virtually impossible to find out from the airport if a particular flight had arrived yet. It wasn’t at all difficult for me, however. I would just call up one of our ATC students and ask, “Has the British Caledonian flight arrived?” Since the airport had no radar, the student would usually say, “Just a minute, Mr. Jeff. I will look out of the window and see.”
Our students loved to show us that their English lessons were paying dividends. Unfortunately, this didn’t always work out too well.
One day I was waiting to meet some teachers arriving on a British Caledonian flight from Gatwick. As I was early, I went up to the tower to chat with the on-duty ATC, who was one of our students. He proudly introduced me to his colleagues and we all sat down to have tea.
The radio crackled and my student went over to answer. It was the British Caledonian pilot asking for permission to land.
My student was thrilled. What an opportunity to show his teacher how much he had learned! Looking across to see if I was watching and listening, he said carefully in his very best English, “British Caledonian, you may land immediately on runway number one.” (At this time the airport had only one runway.)
I was just about to congratulate my student when the pilot’s very British voice came dryly over the radio, “And the Alitalia plane?"
Unfortunately, my student hadn’t noticed that an Alitalia flight was already taxiing on runway one. He panicked and his beautiful English deserted him. “British. No land. No land. Go back. Go back. No land.”
My student was mortified at losing face so badly in front of his teacher. I felt terrible for him. It’s just as well that the pilot looked down before he landed, though.
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