ABSTRACT
What was the cause of the mishap? In the aftermath of failure, no question seems more pressing. There can be significant pressure from all kinds of directions to pinpoint a cause: People want to start investing in countermeasures; People want to know how to adjust their behavior to avoid the same kind of trouble; People may simply seek retribution, punishment, justice. The authority says that the controller did not contribute to the cause of the accident, yet the airline claims that air traffic control clearances were not in accordance with applicable standards and that the controller's inadequate language skills and inattention were causal. Look at two official investigations into the same accident. One was conducted by the airline whose aircraft crashed somewhere in the mountains. The other was conducted by the civil aviation authority of the country in which the accident occurred, and who employed the air traffic controller in whose airspace it took place.
