bearfoil:
So as a responsibility consideration, AA got done in.
We don't know a whole lot about Islamabad. But, we do about AAL 965. That crew did it to themselves beyond any doubt. They had a database issue, which was their responsibility to resolve without letting the aircraft fly away into oblivian. It would have been very easy to have reverted to heading mode (pointed in the proper direction) or gone to raw data on a very simple arrival/IAP procedure. They were originally set up for the ILS (landing Runway 1 instead of Runway 19) but the accepted the offer of the approach landing south. They sure were not required to do that. But, they were running late so why not shave off a few minutes. Plus, there was a lot of idle, diverting chit-chat with a flight attendant while they were working hard to become passengers instead of pilots.
The Cali controller did nothing wrong. In fact, within the limits of Colombian non-radar air traffic procedures and English as a second language, he did rather well as I recall.
Additional comment added: The controller could be faulted for approving the request by the crew to proceed direct to the NDB (Romeo?). In the first instance the crew should not have made such a request during descent on an arrival route onto an IAP in a non-radar ATC environment. In response, the controller should have disapproved the request and, instead, told the crew to remain on the published transition and IAP.