Originally Posted by
Hotel Tango
I don't know if this is ATC bashing but let's get one thing straight: Tenerife was not an ATC error. It was pilot error! Furthermore, there was no ground radar to assist the controller. It was also an era when official ATC phraseology used the term "standby for take-off". A clipped transmission made the senior Captain think he had been cleared for take-off and he dismissed doubts expressed by other crew members! Since then we have CRM in the cockpit and "departure" iso "take-off" used by ATC with the sole exception of an actual take-off clearance. As for Air Canada at SFO, yet again pilot error!
Indeed, Tenerife was not ATC error, nor was SFO. IAD was. Airport layout as well. The public isn't going to care whose fault it is if another high speed collision between two large transports occurs on a runway at a major airport. Think: weak link.