FWIW: Air Traffic Control does not make errors.
I would have thought you were an air traffic controller, according to that statement! :)
I was only a private pilot but there is a guy here that is ATC.
If the nurse gives the wrong medicine or marks the wrong limb for surgery, the attending physician will take the brunt of the blame and pay for the ambulance chaser's new Ferrari. Likewise, even if ATC directly ordered a plane to fly into a mountain side, the pilot would be the one responsible.
Someone has to be the captain of the ship and be accountable for the actions of the entire team. Legally, the doctrine is known as "respondeat superior".