Confusion and correct phraseology
Issues as to the ATCO being confused with respect to the terminology used, are, in my opinion exactly why the safety issues from the BoI should be being addressed. An ATCO of his apparent long standing and capability (and I'm going on what all his friends and collegues wrote on this forum leading up to the CM) should not have been confused. So why did this happen and why did he feel unable to advise the pilot that this was the case?
The results of the CM are known and unarguable.
However there are lessons to be learnt here. I have not had any replies as to the exact phraseology used. What happened to the good old phrase "at your discretion' or "unable to give descent below Minimum safe Altitude"? Were these phrases used or weren't they? If they were then how could the BoI have considered the phraseology used to be unsafe?
It also seems that the ATCO was well aware that the aircraft intended to descend to 4000ft and that the aircarft disappeared from radar, but that this was not due to the crash. I read from this, that this descent took the aircraft out of known radar coverage. Is that correct? If so what happened to that good old phrase "you are (going) out of radar coverage, Radar Information Service Terminated".
All of the above are little alert messages to the pilot that he is now doing entirely his own thing and if they had been used, would have absolutely and fully exonerated the ATCO.
So someone out there please tell me. Are military controllers no longer taught the above phraseology? Has it changed? Did they ever use it? Was it used in this case? From what we are learning from the BoI, it seems the latter is unlikely.
So I say once again. We all have a lot to learn on the issue of safety here. What is likely to be done about it? Has any of it already been addressed?