PBL:
Terpster and Guppy,
I don't want to sidetrack the thread any more than necessary, but your comments on Cali suggest I need to clarify.
Everybody seems to want to select their favorite causal factors for a given accident, and say "it was *really* this". Analysts such as myself list and discuss all of them. If we want to prioritise some for some reason, we then provide our criteria and perform the selection. The paper which I referenced considers broadly speaking the language issues. It does not consider the others (for that, see our full analysis).
I think I covered the significant causes in Post 28 above. Language issues did not excuse that conduct. The verbal exchanges made it seem like the AAL expected the world to have ATC radar services, and that radar controllers are magicans.
Nonetheless, letting an aircraft depart protected airspace in a wild descent is beyond the pale.