I believe that we have spent too much of this thread discussing the ATC factors and should instead be asking why an experienced crew would take-off on the wrong runway.
Am I alone in thinking that the action of pre-flighting the wrong aircraft could have had a significant impact on this incident?
For the last 25 years I have been sitting in the back of simulators and in aircraft jump seats carrying out recurrent checks and line checks. I have noticed that if the first thirty minutes of a check goes well then the remainder of the flight tends to be relaxed with few errors. However, if the first thirty minutes goes badly, with a major mistake being made then the mistakes tend to multiply
Having wasted valuable time by getting on the wrong aircraft the crew would have been keen to get the correct aircraft on its way as soon as possible. Even though some people might say that they have done this themselve, it is not a common occurrence and the crew would have been embarassed. Their error would have been on their mind during the pre-flight and taxi.
I'm not saying that this was the cause of the accident but just that it was one of the many holes in the swiss cheese that morning.
Airclues