A smell of arrogance
It seems you have a very poor knowledge of the situation about this accident: First there are no ATCOs in the BEA organization and the conclusions are only reflecting the views of “super "pilots and engineers. When ATC gives the clearance to line up behind a departing aircraft in front of him, I would like to understand why the captain (And it was not his first time…) decide to line up after a landing traffic without listening to the copilot who told him that they were cleared only after a departing.!! (I am not sure a lot of people know but this captain suicide some months later…feeling somewhere guilty ???) And on top – not in the BEA report_ nothing about the fact that the SD330 flight strip was put on the controller strip board at a wrong place by someone who was not an ATCO and who report different versions between the BEA and the official judicial enquiries….
About the use of French for the departing traffic: At the time the T/O clearance was given to this MD80 flight nobody is able to assume that the crew of the SH330 was on the same frequency as they were first told to monitor only and the MD80 receive an early T/O clearance and stay longer on the runway to solve technical problems.
(From that time 90% of CDG runways incursions occurred when using a single language by ATC and intruders, and are mainly due to lack of job concentration of crews (Even some of them when listening after to their recorded read back not in line with their actions says that’s not what they were saying !!)
And on a more generic point of views:
Why French ATCOs should use a foreign learned language to talk to French speaking pilots, losing a lot of easy way to exchange compared to the use of their native language? ICAO said that the level of safety required in ATC do not need that a clearance send to a crew shall be “understood” – it should be more proper to say” heard”- by the other crews on the same frequency. Why a lot of ATC clearances shall repeated twice because crews report that they were busy with their flying tasks? No time to monitor? Because to understand the so called “situational awareness” a random listening of frequency is not enough, at list for an ATCO...may be not for “Super” pilot (The same that promotes silent Data link in ICAOs Working group!)
When ATC is performed by ATCOs and Pilot's tasks by pilots , cows are well guarded.
Then Why English language should be used? Can you give me a copy of the safety case performed by ICAO which says that it is the safest language to use for ATC? Or does the uS says if it's not adopted as such, we stop to fund ICAO ???
I am sure that German or Greek is much more concise and strict in a safety way!
Why British ALPA criticized the African ATC authorities in countries who have English as the official language for not speaking the “right English”? Is there more than one English? Which one shall be used in ATC
About which “English” are we speaking now? Where is the language academia that protects the integrity of vocabulary and grammar? You should read the Kent Jones (an American!) study about the use of English in civil aviation…
In fact safety is just an argument to hide the liberalism hand over on profit, especially in developed countries like in Europe. When Europe will privatized ATC I am sure that UK lobbyist will promote UK’s ATCOs because they have much more fluent “English” than the other. Forgetting in that worldwide story that they are only the poodles of the Americans..