"it is his fault, but that doesn't make him a cretin, now does it?"
The reason for the word wasn't so much as for the mistake, I accept we all make them and we all learn from them (assuming we live to do so). I have made (and sadly continue to make) my own fair share of them.
But I do think there is a time when it's best to put your hands in the air and do what you can to make amends. And if ever the time was right, sitting on a runway facing the wrong way with incoming traffic is the time !
Arguing black is white (or that 05 is 23) and that no mistake has been made justifies the use of the word.