My two-penneth? Yes, the pilots should've known better that 6500ft is a good safety alt in the Grampians. Yes, they should've known that RIS does not offer them any terrain clearance. Yes, they should've known that Min Vectoring Altitude (MVA) is not available in the UK (even though it was mentioned in the FIH (yellow book) at the time).
However, giving out information of "Bite 21 descend 4000ft on the Portree" is unsafe even if it is not a mandatory instruction. Look at the catchall at the front of the then extant JSP318A inferring that a controller has a responsibility to pass safe information. Also, not replying for a request for MVA left the contract requested between the controller and the pilots horribly open.
Who is to blame for all this? Too many to list to single out any individual.
Also, I seriously question the eyewitness business. I have taken a long time to positively VID a Tornado instead of an F15 (well inside 3000ft); I've even watched a wingman shoot an F3 because he thought it was an F15 and he had 3000hrs+ on Lightning, F4 and F3.
So all in all, what's my point? Stop turning this sorry catalogue of errors into some crusade to defend a controller that was having as bad a day as anyone else involved. It won't bring back the pilots and it won't do anything to patch up a deepening distrust (IMHO) that appears to be prevalent between aircrew and ATCOs.
Rant over and out...
LJ