Narrative:

We were descending into milan and talking to the center just prior to the approach controller. The pilot not flying asked that I take over the radio while he picked up ATIS. The controller issued what I understood to be the instruction 'descend to 310 - eleven at tirul.' controller had a strong italian accent. I asked him to repeat the instructions. I read back to the controller; 'descend to 310 - eleven at tirul.' I was not sure of the exact fix so I spelled it phonetically. He then again read the instructions to what I thought was - descend to 310 - 11;000 at tirul. I again acknowledged. When passing through FL300 the controller asked what my assigned altitude was. When I told him 11;000 at tirul he said; 'no; assigned altitude is 310; climb back to 310.' we immediately climbed back to that altitude; after analyzing the controller most likely said to descend to 310 - level at tirul. The word 'level' and 'eleven' sounded very similar with his accent. We did not see any other aircraft on TCAS and asked the controller if everything was okay and he said there was no problem. He then gave us a change of frequency to another sector and we continued our descent into milan. It's important to realize there's going to be language barriers and phraseology differences when flying in foreign countries. You must be aware of this and double check on any instructions. This is even more important when the other crew member is performing other duties.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CL300 flight crew misinterpreted descent instruction due to Italian Controller's accent.

Narrative: We were descending into Milan and talking to the Center just prior to the Approach Controller. The pilot not flying asked that I take over the radio while he picked up ATIS. The Controller issued what I understood to be the instruction 'descend to 310 - eleven at TIRUL.' Controller had a strong Italian accent. I asked him to repeat the instructions. I read back to the Controller; 'Descend to 310 - eleven at TIRUL.' I was not sure of the exact fix so I spelled it phonetically. He then again read the instructions to what I thought was - descend to 310 - 11;000 at TIRUL. I again acknowledged. When passing through FL300 the Controller asked what my assigned altitude was. When I told him 11;000 at TIRUL he said; 'No; assigned altitude is 310; climb back to 310.' We immediately climbed back to that altitude; after analyzing the Controller most likely said to descend to 310 - level at TIRUL. The word 'level' and 'eleven' sounded very similar with his accent. We did not see any other aircraft on TCAS and asked the Controller if everything was okay and he said there was no problem. He then gave us a change of frequency to another sector and we continued our descent into Milan. It's important to realize there's going to be language barriers and phraseology differences when flying in foreign countries. You must be aware of this and double check on any instructions. This is even more important when the other crew member is performing other duties.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.