As far as I have read the accident report the crew of the shorts were uncertain if the runway was clear or occupied. Why did they not verify that they were cleared for take-off? My criticism about the controller is that he did not name the runway in his landing clearance for Air Inter.
Another thought that crossed my mind is military traffic. I fly regularly through military operating airspace and I cannot hear the military a/c since they use UHF. As far as I remember some countries in Europe require a separate controller for UHF comm. You share the same airspace, and cannot hear military traffic! Is that safer?
How many accidents can you directly attribute to dual languages being used by ATC? Factor in the number of operations and the frequency is probably very low and therefore remains a very low risk.
If you take a look at the whole picture it probably is the safest way it is now. I am getting scared imagining whole Latin America trying to conduct ATC comm in English to each other ...
7 7 7 7