"In addition to: 'No TCAS, no crash. If Russian crew follows TCAS RA, no crash.' :
If Russian Captain's decision to follow TCAS was not over-ruled by check Captain sitting behind him, no crash.
If other ATCO not away from workstation taking a break, no crash.
If PN not put under unfair pressure to agree to allow telephone engineers to work that night (after his shift had begun), inadvertantly taking down the phone system so that the system actually scrambled the number PN was dialling when calling for assistance to handover A/C to next centre, no crash.
If incoming call system working so that other ATCers trying to warn him of conflict get through, no crash.
If Skyguide's conflict alert system working, no crash.
More than anything he was the victim of very bad luck. He was not without blame - he should have called his colleague back when it got busy - he should not have tried to do two jobs at once - but even then he was merely trying to be a 'team player' by allowing his colleague the break. To blame him, and him alone, and to suggest 'justice has been served' by this apalling act is indeed very simplistic and distasteful in the extreme. Having said that, none of my family members died in this accident and I might feel differently if they had. In which case I would not be in a good position to hand out 'justice'."