I understand what you mean Scuzi and I dont wish to denegrate the need for precision its just that in 15 years of experience I have never come across such a situation. More importantly I have never heard of an incident where this was involved (I stand to be corrected). It appears to be an apochryphal tale.
The adding of the word "degrees" to a heading was what I was really describing as nonsensical in an approach environment. "turn left heading 180". Im sorry is that 180 thousand feet?
Just jobs for the boys, who feel they have to make an impact or else there offices in CTC might go missing.