Originally Posted by blue heaven
Do not ATC have some shared responsibility in this incident? What do they mean when they say "cleared for take off"?
Well, technically the answer is that there is nothing on the runway.
But ATC, or some of the systems that are available on the ground these days, could have some way of preventing such an incident - but none are 100% reliable. As with all incidents, there are will be a whole range of factors which contributed here and we will have to wait and see what conclusions are drawn by the investigators (who have access to all the information).