I wouldn't read too much into the fact that the Skyguide officials have laid the blame at the door of the ATCO. Given that they are facing criminal charges it's hardly surprising that the central plank of their defence is that the blame lies solely with the late Peter Nielsen. It doesn't of course, in reality, but given this is a criminal trial the defendants don't need to prove anything, least of all that someone other than them was responsible. So don't infer that an acquittal by the criminal court is an imputation of responsibility on the controller.
In reality what happened that night was a combination of systemic failings at Skyguide, serious mistakes by Nielsen which arguably amounted to gross negligence, national differences in SOPs which led the Bashkirian crew to ignore the TCAS RA, and just plain bad luck.
Last edited by Wedge; 19th May 2007 at 19:52.