ATC watcher, over the years I have read as much as I can on the whole event. Somewhere in my junk I have the official ICAO report. When I have new trainee controllers under my belt, I look up on the internet and print the whole sorry saga out and run through it with them. My last paragraph was one all inclusive sentence, and the stress of it is in the last few words about "runway occupancy", and I stick to my thoughts that the info given/not given was all part of the chain of events. I get involved (as do you if you are an active controller) in events all the time where through misunderstandings, a little extra care/advice/instruction can confirm/clear up/clarify confusing/different situations. I might be a bit hard, it may well have been 1997, but I was a tower check controller in Sydney in that year, and I would hope that things haven't changed too much for me. This may sound high and mighty, but I just believe that just a few more words from the tower controller may well have gone a long way to avoiding the whole catastrophe.
PS, Though at the time I was not occupying a control position (making tea for the boys), I was training in Sydney tower on the night of the collision between the Canadian Pacific DC 8 and the TAA B727 in 1971, and having been dragged through the court case on that one I am acutely sensetive to runway occupancy issues and the words that relate to this. If you are not aware of that accident, well look it up on the internet and if ever there was a look into the window of Tennerife, this was one very lucky escape!
All the best to you "Watcher".