Pilot’s Simple English Mistake Causes Airport Panic
get wires crossed: to misunderstand someone or be misunderstood during a conversation
Every successful language learner knows that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process. Most of the time, these mistakes are harmless. But in rare cases, even a small mistake can cause a lot of confusion.
English is the international language of air traffic control and ocean navigation. An old Berlitz language school commercial shows a German coastguard receiving a call for help from an English ship. “We are sinking!” the voice says. The German coastguard replies, “What are you thinking about?”
A similar English miscommunication happened in real life recently. A TAP Air Portugal flight was heading to Nice, France, when the toilets broke. It was not an emergency, but the pilots hoped to get expedited permission to land because of the problem. The pilots told air traffic control that all the toilets had stopped working. But somehow they got their wires crossed. Air traffic control mistook “toilets not working” for “pilot not working.” They believed that the pilot was sick or that no pilot was on board. Because of this, the airport was put on alert for a possible emergency. In the end, the flight landed safely, and the problem was explained on the ground.
Sample sentences
I thought our meeting was at 2 p.m., but she thought it was at 3. We must have got our wires crossed.
They both showed up at different restaurants because they got their wires crossed about where to meet.
He thought she was angry, but she was just tired. They really got their wires crossed.
Origin
This expression comes from old telephone or electrical systems. If the wires got mixed up, the message would go to the wrong person or sound unclear. Now, we use it to describe a confusing conversation where people don’t understand each other.
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