Narrative:

It is a recurring problem that some personnel use nonstandard verbiage to describe aircraft. The use of slang; is not only not appropriate in an aircraft operational environment; it could very well be dangerous. When ramp control uses slang to describe traffic to an aircraft underway; the crew of that aircraft must assume that they know what the ramp controller is talking about. For instance; my aircraft while in ord was directed to taxi around the 57 on the bravo line via the charlie line and then return to the bravo line on taxi out. My first officer responded with B757. So the instructions and response/readback did not even match. An aircraft behind me received equally unclear instructions and also responded with the correct FAA type designation of the traffic that that crew assumed was the traffic in question. Similar slang usage goes on at other airports; with '37;' 'guppy;' 'whale;' '400;' '67;' '57;' and other non standard phraseology being used by ramp controllers; pilots and maintenance alike. Even the taxi in stop marks are not painted in standard designations. Ground crews must deal with such designations as 673; 400; 572; 573; etc; as well as FAA standard designations. When we have an accident and the public finds out about all the nonstandard jargon and lack of direction regarding standardized phraseology we will look like proper fools. But if an observer looks within the mixed cultures at this airline; that non standard phraseology would be found embedded within other; very influential environments where it should not be; such as schedules; training doctrine and fleet designations. Get rid of it. The verbiage used by ramp controllers; pilots; maintenance and internal publications should exactly match that of the FAA.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain laments the use of 'jargon' by ground crewmen; Ramp Control and Ground Control to describe various aircraft types when issueing instructions. Even gate markings do not match standard FAA designations.

Narrative: It is a recurring problem that some personnel use nonstandard verbiage to describe aircraft. The use of slang; is not only not appropriate in an aircraft operational environment; it could very well be dangerous. When Ramp Control uses slang to describe traffic to an aircraft underway; the crew of that aircraft must ASSUME that they know what the Ramp Controller is talking about. For instance; my aircraft while in ORD was directed to taxi around the 57 on the Bravo Line via the Charlie Line and then return to the Bravo Line on taxi out. My First Officer responded with B757. So the instructions and response/readback did not even match. An aircraft behind me received equally unclear instructions and also responded with the correct FAA type designation of the traffic that that crew ASSUMED was the traffic in question. Similar slang usage goes on at other airports; with '37;' 'Guppy;' 'Whale;' '400;' '67;' '57;' and other non standard phraseology being used by ramp controllers; pilots and maintenance alike. Even the taxi in stop marks are not painted in standard designations. Ground crews must deal with such designations as 673; 400; 572; 573; etc; as well as FAA standard designations. When we have an accident and the public finds out about all the nonstandard jargon and lack of direction regarding standardized phraseology we will look like proper fools. But if an observer looks within the mixed cultures at this airline; that non standard phraseology would be found embedded within other; very influential environments where it should not be; such as schedules; training doctrine and fleet designations. Get rid of it. The verbiage used by ramp controllers; pilots; maintenance and internal publications should exactly match that of the FAA.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.