[M1Tanker]

Interesting. International law states, I believe, English is the official language of flight controllers/pilots. Poor grasp of English is not a good enough excuse to answer why an airliner landed at a military base and not a civilian airport.

As with most news stories, there is a lot more that is not being reported.

[wolf78]

Poor grasp of English is not a good enough excuse to answer why an airliner landed at a military base and not a civilian airport.

You'd be surprised. There are quite a few regional airports in southern Italy where the air traffic controllers hardly speak any English at all. IIRC an Air India pilot once wanted to land a 747 on the neighboring autobahn instead of Frankfurt airport due to poor English skills.