Sam Cross, 16, died of severe multiple injuries when the single-engined Cessna plane he was flying "corkscrewed" out of the sky and nosedived into a park in the summer of 2006.
He had been told by an air traffic controller to delay his landing to allow another, faster aircraft to land.
But giving evidence at the inquest into Sam's death at Southend Coroner's Court in Essex, the ATCO said he almost certainly would not have given the order had he known the young pilot was so inexperienced.
National guidelines have been changed since the accident so that learner pilots have to identify themselves as a student before their call sign, the inquest was told.
The air traffic controller said he had been warned by radar staff at Southend Airport that they had been given late notification that the Malibu plane from Jersey was approaching "very fast" to land.

A mid-air collision close to Malta's airport in April last year between a passenger jet and an ultralight aircraft was averted when the planes were just 180 metres apart, a preliminary report is expected to say.
Only quick thinking by the pilot of an Air Malta Boeing 737, making its final approach at the end of a flight from Rome with some 80 passengers on board, managed to prevent a potential disaster over a populated area two nautical miles away from Malta International Airport.
A report commissioned by the government to probe the incident is expected to point fingers at the Italian ultralight which entered Maltese airspace without a transponder and authorisation, and, to a certain extent, six local air traffic controllers on duty on April 21, 2007.
The findings are expected to anger air traffic controllers who are insisting that the processed radar picture presented to them on the day showed no trace of the Italian aircraft.

A Europe-wide scheme to reduce airlines' flying times and fuel burns got a major boost yesterday when Ireland and the UK created the continent's first ever Functional Airspace Block (FAB).

The development comes three months after the European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) unveiled a wide-ranging proposal that could to save €5bn, 12 million tonnes of C02 and 21m minutes of flight delays each year.

Yesterday's deal means airlines will now have to liaise with just one set of air-traffic controllers for flights over Irish and UK airspace, paving the way for shorter routings and ultimately resulting in lower fuel burns and lower emissions.

Europe is aiming to create two other major FABs, one covering western Europe and one covering the central continent, as part of the Single European Sky regulations.

Simple mistakes while entering flight management system data led a LOT Boeing 737-500 to fly a circuitous route

over northwest London last year, as instrument and language problems left the crew struggling to navigate the jet.

Limited command of English by the Polish aircraft’s crew aggravated a situation which arose after an oversight during

preparations for a London Heathrow-Warsaw service on 4 June 2007.

On stand the co-pilot punched incorrect co-ordinate information into the computer while realigning the inertial

reference systems. By entering the longitude as ‘east’ instead of ‘west’ – possibly because few LOT destinations are

west of zero longitude – the co-pilot erroneously gave the aircraft’s position as 33.5nm from its actual location.

Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration hailed creation of a reporting system to let air traffic controllers point out safety problems without fear of punishment -- an arrangement in place for years with airlines, pilots and airports.

But the program hasn't started because the FAA wants the option of punishing controllers who make mistakes, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The FAA's position has drawn criticism from the association, which contends it will discourage controllers from reporting safety problems.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has hired so many new air traffic controllers that it cannot train them efficiently, according to a report.

It has exceeded its own quotas for inexperienced staff at more than 20% of its facilities, the US Transportation Department's inspector general said.

It found the FAA had underestimated how many controllers would retire or leave, leading to a surge in hiring trainees.

The FAA has accepted most of the report's recommendations.

The tower had just one controller on duty at the time of the accident, but two would have presented a better chance at stopping the plane from using the wrong runway, according to a petition the National Air Traffic Controllers Association has filed with the National Transportation Safety Board.
"Had there been two people there, I seriously believe the accident wouldn't have happened," NATCA President Patrick Forrey said in an interview.
On a related issue, the union has sent a letter to the NTSB complaining that, nearly two years after the crash, the controllers have had just one meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration to address fatigue problems. One of the NTSB's recommendations after the Kentucky accident reiterated the board's previous urgings that the FAA deal with controller fatigue.

Australia's air traffic controllers are making an audacious bid for a 63 per cent pay rise, which could lift the pay of some to as much as $175,000 a year.
The controllers union, Civil Air, is calling for a 32 to 63 per cent rise in wages.

It means a senior controller would be paid $175,000.

The union said the increase was needed to help retain and attract workers, saying there was a critical shortage of air traffic controllers.

"This is our vision to solve the problems of attraction and retention," Civil Air executive secretary Peter McGuane told News Ltd.

"There is a shortage of air traffic controllers. Significant numbers have been lured overseas by more lucrative conditions and this means extra overtime for the (rest), which has contributed to fatigue."

The boss of German airline Lufthansa has said billions of dollars are being wasted because Europe does not have a unified air traffic control system.

Planes are having to stay in the air longer, burning expensive fuel, as they negotiate airspace over different countries, Wolfgang Mayrhuber said.

In a BBC interview, Mr Mayrhuber complained a single air traffic system had been discussed for 48 years.

He called on European politicians to stop airlines from wasting resources.

"If the honey bees were controlled by fragmented air traffic controllers we wouldn't have honey any more in Europe," said Mr Mayrhuber.

Airlines navigate almost 40 different air traffic control systems across Europe.