I have never understood the need for the constant intrigue over this matter.

How many times in our everyday conversations do we not use the right word or phrase? Even in written forums such as this one, the contributions are unedited and we're always using the incorect gremmar and spolling.
Poor old Neil A, in one of the momentous moments of history, stumbles and leaves out an 'a'. He was a pretty damned good pilot so I think we can forgive him an error of syntax.
I wish the pedants would just get over it

Cheers otherwise
Drew