Q1234. What technical guidelines govern commercial aviation pilot and crew manual translations?

Answered by the NYC Visa & Translation certified translation team

Commercial aviation pilot and crew manual translations operate inside a regulatory regime where English is the default working language, and the first question is always whether translation is required at all. The regulatory baseline: ICAO establishes English as the international aviation language, and aircraft manufacturers issue the operating manuals (the AFM, the FCOM, the QRH, the MEL) in English; flight crew hold ICAO English language proficiency ratings; and many regulators including CAAT accept English-language operational documentation. So the translated scope is usually narrow: the operator's own procedures manuals for local staff, the cabin crew materials where the crew's working language differs, the training materials, and the ground handling and maintenance instructions for local personnel. What must not be casually translated: the manufacturer's approved flight manual content and the emergency procedures — these are approved documents, and an unapproved translation used operationally is a safety and regulatory problem; where a translation of approved content is needed, it is produced under the operator's controlled documentation process with the regulator's acceptance. The translation discipline where it applies: the terminology follows ICAO's and the manufacturer's standard phraseology (never paraphrased); the units are preserved exactly (feet, knots, pounds, inches of mercury — never converted); the checklists' structure and sequence are absolutely preserved; and the warning-caution-note hierarchy keeps its exact ranking. Points that matter: the document control (version, effectivity, revision status) must be carried into the translation; the translator needs aviation domain experience; and the operator's quality system reviews and approves the translation before operational use. Confirm CAAT's requirements for the specific document before commissioning.