When I saw the thread title, I thought 'dear god, not
another phraseology change!' Then I read the first post and a chill ran through me. But, I'm afraid this is a human based system and humans unfortunately make mistakes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending what happened here, but mistakes do occur.
followed by some confused sounds, then 'line up only.' The controller then changed and we went from there.
We don't know what happened in the VCR, but I suspect that the mistake was witnessed by the ATCO's colleagues and he/she was removed from the seat very quickly.
The whole thing sounds nasty, but thankfully,
tom and his/her colleague on the flight deck were vigilant enough and the wx good enough to see what was (literally) coming.
PS Where was it? It's just so I can plan my next holiday!
