"While we can debate all day on whether the no. of controllers on duty was relevant to the accident, I am 99% certain that one fact regarding this in the article is incorrect:  It says that the similar incident in 1993 was spotted by an air traffic controller.  It is my understanding that, in the 1993 incident, it was in fact the pilot, who realized during the standard pre-flight check procedure (""Visually confirm runway heading"") that his compass reading did not correspond with the listed heading of the runway.  Here is my source   

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