One of the investigators told me that the famous squeal obscuring the PanAm's transmission was in fact audible in the KLM cockpit. The Dutch would not accept this -- or a great many other things agreed on by the industry representatives, the Spanish and the Americans on the investigation -- and in fact they still do not. There was a TV documentary recently which reiterated all the Dutch justifications for what Van Zanten did, ending up with the pale excuse, "he thought he had TO clearance".
IN fact, when the Dutch first heard about the crash they said, "we'd better send for Van Zanten". The shock and disbelief at the scale of the casualties and who was involved was simply too great to take on board.
That TV doc brought up again another canard the Dutch have been belabouring ever since: the idea that the tower controllers were listening to a football match. This was based on some muted word similar to "football" (in Spanish) being heard on the tapes. No other investigators heard it but the Dutch fastened on it like a terrier and would not let it go. They filed a minority report which blames everyone but KLM. The web-site mentioned above holds to this view too, seeing it all as some vast conspiracy against the Dutch nation.
Proper appreciation of one's mistakes is required to learn from them. If you made no mistake....