A friend and co-worker lost his father in that KLM collison. I remember when he got the call at work telling him his father died in that tragedy.
When the 747 first came out, the pundits were railing about the possibility of such a great number of fatalities should two 747's collide in mid air. Now we have a new twist with terrorism and the new Airbus 380. (If it ever gets built).
Imagine if a terrorist "sleeper" became an ATC. They wouldn't need a martyr or a bomb. One person making a "mistake" like this would be all it takes. Another timed attack using multiple sleepers could be the next 9/11...
Seems like it would be nice to have a traffic light system on the runways, where the ATC clearing a flight for takeoff would also have to click on an icon for the runway, which would produce a green light for the plane taking off, and flashing red lights at every crossing taxiway. Similar deal for landings: a landing plane would see green lights on the cleared runway, and reds would flash on all crossing taxiways