Page:Report of the Board of Inquiry into the Helderberg air disaster.djvu/41

Rh him due to the growing emergency. From this point until the end he definitely sounds more agitated, is definitely more distracted, and appears to be talking more quickly. Several of the transmissions, for example from 00:01:34 to 00:02:14, appear to have the high levels of fundamental frequency, speaking rate, and amplitude which are generally characteristic of great psychological stress (the statement at 00:01:45 seems so high it is close to screaming). It should be noted, however, that these statements appear to be inadvertent transmissions meant for the on-board crew and that the speaker may be yelling partly to be heard through his oxygen mask and above the background noise in the cockpit. In the final section, from 00:02:38 to the end, the speaker appears to be more composed and responsive than he was in the preceding section. It seems possible that he has calmed down somewhat and feels that the emergency is more under control at this point than it was at earlier points. These comments are based on simply reviewing the tape and do not reflect scientific measurement for psychological stress."

1.10 Aerodrome Information

The emergency services at Plaisance Airport conformed to category 8 standards as laid down in ICAO's Annex 14. All navigational, landing and communication aids were functioning normally. At 00:25 everything was ready to receive the aircraft in distress and everybody was on