A recurring theme in industrial accidents and related issues is the ambiguity of 'English'. English not being a programming language it is very easy to make sentences that can mean different things dependent on the mindset of the reader.
Here is an example:
"When going around after an aborted landing: take off power"
During the landing of an airliner the captain decided to abort and go around, the key phrase, straight from the manual caused the co-pilot to reduce power on all four engines causing the airplane to stall and drop out of the sky.
English is full of opportunities for such mishaps, lots of jokes are based around them.
So, my question to you is do you have any examples of mishaps caused by ambiguity in English ?
On Air traffic Control see (http://www.scribd.com/doc/19647051/Miscommunications-in-Air-...)
I quote a classic!
Turkish Airlines said yesterday it had sacked two pilots who had a cockpit punch-up over control-tower instructions on a flight between Bangkok and Istanbul. "Are you deaf? He's is telling something and you are doing something completely different", one reportedly told the other. A junior pilot completed the flight. (Reuters, 7th May 1997)