[mbubb]

that is a very memorable incident - not least for the number of lives lost. I am not sure if it was deference as much as reverting to a native speech pattern in a critical moment.

"We are at takeoff" is what the pilot said and a native English speaker would have said something more like "We are taking off". A subtle difference - I grok what he was saying after the fact but in the moment the other's understanding was something like 'the KLM plane is currently at the starting point for takeoff'.

All these are just guesses on my part - I think of this incident often, particularly in terms of clarity and 'closed loop' comms under stress.

https://tailstrike.com/database/27-march-1977-klm-4805/