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I read it completley different to you Chief. I saw them asking Manilla lots of times to confirm there were no friendlies, even asking to double check because of apparant friendly colourings and they were given the go ahead. After they realised the mistake they hung around waiting for information on the damage they had done and further instruction, even reaching Bingo fuel before being formaly told to RTB after abort. The fact that Manilla was able to get casualty statistics on the ground from the British suggests someone knew they were there earlier on. A British accent command came to abort about 5 minutes after the attack. That says to me the British had means of contacting US air support AND Manila and their artillery. There was some overall air command too - Sky something. When everything from everyone senior says go ahead what do you do?
I feel for the pilots. They are the last line of defence from stupid instructions sure, but I don't believe their emotional reaction came from thinking they were in trouble, I think it came from genuine distress at the death of an allied serviceman caused by them acting on their own and other peoples mistake.
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