diff --git a/app/composables/useLiveAtcSession.ts b/app/composables/useLiveAtcSession.ts
index 2c90420..0cdd28e 100644
--- a/app/composables/useLiveAtcSession.ts
+++ b/app/composables/useLiveAtcSession.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import { useApi } from '~/composables/useApi'
 import type { useRadioSpeech } from '~/composables/useRadioSpeech'
 import useCommunicationsEngine from '../../shared/utils/communicationsEngine'
 import {
+  isSimControlMatch,
+  isSimControlRejection,
   parseSimControl,
   simControlRejectionSpeech,
   simControlResultSpeech,
@@ -331,11 +333,14 @@ export function useLiveAtcSession(
     // anchors already keep it from ever matching real ICAO phraseology either way.
     if (bridgeConnected.value) {
       const simResult = parseSimControl(transcript)
-      if (simResult.matched) {
+      if (isSimControlMatch(simResult)) {
         void sendSimControlCommand(simResult.command)
         return
       }
-      if (simResult.reason !== 'no_intent') {
+      // A rejection with a reason means the pilot clearly addressed their sim but
+      // got something wrong — tell them. 'no_intent' just means this was ordinary
+      // radio traffic, so it falls through to the flow untouched.
+      if (isSimControlRejection(simResult) && simResult.reason !== 'no_intent') {
         const reply = simControlRejectionSpeech(simResult.reason)
         scheduleControllerSpeech(reply)
         appendLogEntry('atc', reply, currentState.value?.id ?? '', { frequency: frequencies.value.active })
diff --git a/shared/utils/simControl.ts b/shared/utils/simControl.ts
index 7099ec9..b2b6660 100644
--- a/shared/utils/simControl.ts
+++ b/shared/utils/simControl.ts
@@ -38,9 +38,26 @@ export type SimControlNoMatchReason =
   | 'missing_runway'
   | 'missing_airport'
 
-export type SimControlParseResult =
-  | { matched: true; command: SimControlCommand; text: string }
-  | { matched: false; reason: SimControlNoMatchReason; text: string }
+export type SimControlMatch = { matched: true; command: SimControlCommand; text: string }
+export type SimControlRejection = { matched: false; reason: SimControlNoMatchReason; text: string }
+
+export type SimControlParseResult = SimControlMatch | SimControlRejection
+
+/**
+ * Narrowing helpers. This union is discriminated by a boolean, and the project
+ * builds with `strict: false` (nuxt.config.ts) — so `strictNullChecks` is off,
+ * and without it TypeScript does not treat `true`/`false` literal types as
+ * discriminants. `if (result.matched) … else result.reason` therefore does NOT
+ * narrow and fails to compile. An explicit type predicate narrows regardless,
+ * which is why callers must go through these rather than testing `.matched`.
+ */
+export function isSimControlMatch(result: SimControlParseResult): result is SimControlMatch {
+  return result.matched
+}
+
+export function isSimControlRejection(result: SimControlParseResult): result is SimControlRejection {
+  return !result.matched
+}
 
 /** Hard value ranges; anything outside is a refusal, never a clamp. */
 export const SIM_CONTROL_LIMITS = {