An air carrier crew reported that while in chinese airspace a language misunderstanding caused them ...

Narrative:

Route Y1; we had just passed mepep on our way to ombon; when the controller gave us a clearance to go direct to a fix. We didn't understand his english and requested him to repeat the clearance. He repeated the clearance again and we were still unable to understand his english. We then requested him to spell the fix. He did and for confirmation we spelled it back to him 'O-G-O-M-O'. The controller replied back with a click of the mike and we spelled it back to him 'O-G-O-M-O' to get verbal confirmation. He said yes. We went direct to 'O-G-O-M-O'. A few minutes later the same controller came back once again with broken english and said a clearance that we had to have him repeat several times. He now had us turn 90 degrees to the left and go direct to 'ombom'. If we would have stayed on track for 'ogomo' we would have crossed into zp(right)-405 which is a restricted airspace.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier crew reported that while in Chinese airspace a language misunderstanding caused them to deviate and track toward restricted airspace. The Controller corrected the error by issuing a ninety degree turn to the correct fix.

Narrative: Route Y1; we had just passed MEPEP on our way to OMBON; when the Controller gave us a clearance to go direct to a fix. We didn't understand his English and requested him to repeat the clearance. He repeated the clearance again and we were still unable to understand his English. We then requested him to spell the fix. He did and for confirmation we spelled it back to him 'O-G-O-M-O'. The Controller replied back with a click of the mike and we spelled it back to him 'O-G-O-M-O' to get verbal confirmation. He said yes. We went direct to 'O-G-O-M-O'. A few minutes later the same Controller came back once again with broken English and said a clearance that we had to have him repeat several times. He now had us turn 90 degrees to the left and go direct to 'OMBOM'. If we would have stayed on track for 'OGOMO' we would have crossed into ZP(R)-405 which is a restricted airspace.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	885827
Time
Date	201004
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZLLL.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Low Wing 3 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An air carrier crew reported that while in chinese airspace a language misunderstanding caused them to deviate and track toward restricted airspace. The controller corrected the error by issuing a ninety degree turn to the correct fix.