Journalist under fire over Welsh comments

A TRAVEL expert has been criticised for moaning about Welsh Covid announcements on planes landing in Wales.

Acclaimed journalist Simon Calder made the points in his latest article for the Independent when he argued that too much information can “jeopardise aviation safety”.

Then on Twitter he wrote: “Is it really necessary to instruct pilots flying to Cardiff to ensure that a Covid announcement is made in Welsh as well as English and one other language?”

But his remarks have attracted some criticism and have been referred to as “very disappointing” and described as an “ignorant question”.

It comes after the writer, who often appears on This Morning, received the “most intense abuse of his career” after advising people to holiday in Wales in October.

In his latest article in the Independent, the journalist wrote: “In the unlikely event you find yourself aboard a plane flying to Wales before the end of April, you should discover the Welsh terms for ‘a new continuous cough, a high temperature or a loss of, or change in, normal sense of taste or smell’.

“That is one stipulation of a ‘Notam’ that applies to all passenger flights into Wales up to 29 April: a mandatory Welshlanguage announcement about Covid.”

He explains that a Notam is a notice given to pilots “containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicised by other means”.

Calder adds: “I wonder how many of them have complied with the instruction that a 150-word onboard message about coronavirus precautions is delivered ‘in English, Welsh and an officially recognised language of the country of departure’?

“I would be surprised if the answer was anything other than zero, and doubly so if the lack of a Welsh-language announcement caused any harm.”

In the article published on Tuesday, he writes the latest notice is “more guff for airmen and women to wade through”.

He then refers to an incident in July 2019 when a flight from Toronto to San Fransisco came dangerously close to other passenger planes during landing.

The crew were told to land at one runway, but found it was closed and came within 60ft of another plane when trying to rectify the mistake.

Calder said the pilots were told of the closure, but it was “well camouflaged in the middle of a big wad of words”.