m&v, I think we all agree that that's exactly what both we as pilots and you as ATCOs would prefer be done to minimise the grief a no comms aircraft is going to cause everyone in a busy terminal area.
So why doesn't someone try to get the standard Emergency Procedures changed to reflect that? I approached the Australian authorities in 1985 with that argument and they saw the sense in it and changed their procedures, (which amazed me at the time). I tried the same thing last year in my current location and was told it was impossible and that ICAO is happy with the current procedures. I'm not, and it would appear quite a few others out there aren't either.
The chances of most modern aircraft suffering a total radio failure must be one in ten million or so. But the incident that triggered this thread proves that it can happen, (and as someone else said, you can be sure if it does happen, it will be at the worst possible time). Like offset tracking, is this yet another case where someone will have to die, or get a very bad fright (or very bad publicity) before the bureaucrats get their bums into gear and do something about it?