This software by Honeywell will make flying safer in India
New Jersey-based conglomerate Honeywell International, at the behest of the Indian government, is developing a software solution that would decode over 100 Indian accents. The software, after development, is slated to be used for deciphering pilots' accents and automatically transcribing their messages for air traffic controllers to bridge communication gaps and make flying safer in India. Here's more on the ambitious project.
Risk of miscommunication high among Indian pilots
India has over 6,000-odd dialects spoken across the country, and with over 100 languages, Indian pilots often speak English with thick local accents, thereby creating possibilities for miscommunication. Additionally, the probability of miscommunication between pilots is set to grow in the near future, with the Modi government's push towards adding smaller airports in India, which is expected to increase the demand for local pilots.
In 1996, two planes crashed owing to miscommunication
Miscommunication between pilots and air traffic controllers is a worldwide hazard. In 1996, there was a fatal crash between a Saudi Boeing 747 and Kazakh Ilyushin-76 near Delhi, and the crash was attributed to a communication breakdown between the pilots whose first language wasn't English.
India is also seeing sustained increase in air traffic
Meanwhile, air traffic in India is also on the rise, spurred on by a middle-class with enough disposable income to regularly avail flights. Additionally, the launch of the government's regional connectivity scheme called UDAN in April 2017 is also contributing to increased air traffic as flight operations, with government-capped air fares, expand to dozens of remote and under-utilized airports.
The software will greatly help in absorbing regional pilots
"This [the project], we thought, works very well for the regional connectivity scheme, because you have regional pilots coming in, people don't know what he said and what he understood," said Neelu Khatri, the head of Honeywell's aerospace business in India.
Can Honeywell pull it off?
Honeywell's project might seem like an ambitious one, but considering the company's engineering prowess in India, it's quite possible that it'll pull the project off. The company employs over 3,000 aeronautical engineers in India, apart from other engineers, which allows it to customize products according to India's local needs, rather than pushing solutions from its generalized global portfolio.
Honeywell hopes to expand the project worldwide
Although the project is being implemented in India first, Honeywell hopes to expand the project to other areas across the world. The transcription project by Honeywell is reportedly being carried out in conjunction with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which manages around 125 airports in India. An AAI spokesperson, however, seemed to be unaware of the development.
