Understanding the ICAO Phonetic Alphabet

The ICAO phonetic alphabet is an international communication system designed to make radio transmissions

clear, precise, and impossible to misunderstand. In aviation,

radio signals can be weak, distorted, or noisy, and many letters

sound similar — like B, D, and G. A single misheard

letter can lead to serious mistakes. To prevent this, every letter is replaced with a

distinct, easily recognizable word. The system was created by the International

Civil Aviation Organization after extensive testing with speakers of different languages. They selected words

that are simple to pronounce, hard to confuse, and highly intelligible even in poor radio