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Analyzing The "Try Escape" Comment on the FAA Tapes

I.  Could the Comment Have Come From Another FAA Controller?

 

To answer that question we have to examine the FAA tapes.  Below follow waveforms of the transmissions captured on the FAA tapes around the time American Airlines Flight 587 (AA 587) departed.

The FAA Local Control tape

Our first look is at the Local Control Tape; specifically, the characterisitics of the landline link between the FAA centers –– Local Control (LC) and Departure Control (DC).

In Figure 1, LC hands off, or announces, Delta Airlines Flight 2311 to DC that he (DC) is about to take over.  The standard procedure between LC and DC is for DC to simply say "check" when he receives LC's call.  LC's handoff includes just a few words ... the flight number and the oftentimes the word "heavy".  The one below is "delta twenty three eleven".  Notice how low the volume is of the "Check" from DC (the DC workstation # that day was J108).

Figure 1

In Figure 2 we notice the very low volume of the "check" from DC when LC has handed off JAL 47.

Figure 2

In Figure 3, when LC hands off American 686, or attempts to, instead of hearing "check", we hear "Try".  It is at a much higher volume than the other communications (the "checks") from DC were, and a much longer transmission than "check". The volume for this phrase is near the level of other planes, not DC's volume.

Figure 3

"Try" is also on the DC tape at the same moment except there we hear the whole phrase, "Try Escape".

The FAA Departure Control Tape - NOTE TO SELF:  This section could be deleted???????????????????????????????  What's the point????

 

VGT HERE -->>  In Figure 4 we're looking at the handoff's from LC to DC . . . as they appear on the DC tape.

Figure 4 - the American 1683 handoff:

Figure 5 - This is from American 645 and Delta 2311

Figure 6 - This one is the Japan Air 747 handoff:

 

This is the Flight 587 handoff. Notice how low DC's voice is recorded at.

 

Lastly, during the American 686 handoff, comes the abrupt "try escape" transmission. The person transmitting this is not the J108 DC Controller or else the FAA would have identified him (not to mention the J108 voice is not the same as the "try escape" voice). If it was someone else in DC, the recorded volume would need to be much lower than J108's recording level because J108 is closer to his own mike! Also, it appears J108 had keyed his mike to reply to LC, whether he replied with his "check" or not we can't tell, but notice the mike click below. It comes before the word escape is finished yet we can hear the whole world. The recording could continue under this scenario if the controller was receiving a message on his headet as he would a message from a plane; all of those get recorded. There is little doubt this transmission came from a plane.

 

All we can conclude from this transmission is that it came from a plane that was tuned to the TRACON frequency as was Flight 587. It does not prove it was 587. But if not 587, this should be on 587's CVR either way because they would hear all the transmissions on that frequency.

1.  The much higher volume of 'Try" compared with DC.  This points away from the DC facility as the source.

2.  LC cannot be the source because if they were, when the transmission ends on the LC tape, as it does mid-phrase after the word "try", it would also end on the DC tape. But it does not. This excludes the LC facility as the source.

3.  The FAA identified the source as Unknown and specifically told U.S.Read that they polled all their controllers and determined that the source of this transmission was not from any FAA facility –– the source was from a plane.

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Other Analyses

 

Identifying the two words

 

The two word phrase, nice game/try escape, looks like this in waveform:

 

It's easy to assume that the first 300 miliseconds contains the first word, and the next 300ms the 2nd word. That would be true if the phrase were nice game; because the speaking pause comes between "nice" and "game". But if the phrase is "try escape", a very quickly spoken "try escape", then the pause occurs between "try'es" and "cape". Assuming for a moment that the phrase is "try escape", and not nice game, the two words are identified on the waveform in this manner:

 

This picture shows the word "Try" highlighted:

 

This picture shows the word "Escape" highlighted:

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Group Study

It is certainly helpful for virgin ears to have the words played separately. Not highlighting them in the manner indicated in the preceding two pictures will produce results like: "nice", or "knife", or "trice", etc., for the first word, and "scape", game", or "gave", etc., for the 2nd.

 

I tried my method for 9 people recently. This is the manner in which I played the entire phrase for the listener:

1. Played the whole phrase several times at normal speed (44100hz). Listener had a piece of paper on which to write their thoughts. There was zero discussion between listener and me.

2. Played the "try" portion (the portion I highlighted in the picture above) several times

3. Played the "escape" portion several times

4. Played the whole phrase several times again

5. Slowed the whole phrase down to 34000Hz and played it several times

6. asked listener for their final guess from their notes.

 

Everyone started out with something like nice game, and ended up with something else.

 

Here are the results:

1. try escape

2. try escape

3. try escape

4. tie escape

5. try escape

6. something escape

7. type escape

8. I scape

9. something escape

 

8 of 9 came up with "escape". 4 of the 9 had "try". Of course, the most important word here is escape.

 

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Is it "Nice" or "Try"?

 

Only the first part of the phrase nice game or try escape appears on the Local Control (LC) tape. That first part is either "nice" or "try".

 

Here is the first part/word from the LC tape at normal speed; the quality of the transmission is a bit clearer and louder on the LC tape than the Departure Control (DC) tape.

 

Here it is again slowed down 14% but with no filters whatsoever applied to the voice.

 

Here it is slowed down 25%.

 

Do you hear "ni" or "try"? I think the "tr" sound is very clear. To my ear there is no doubt the word is "Try" or "try e" and then it is cut off.

 

Here is the 2nd part of the phrase, isolated at normal speed, from the DC tape.

 

Here it is slowed down 14%.

 

Do you hear "game" or "escape"?

 

Lastly, I clipped the "Try" sound from the LC tape into a new sound file with the escape sound from the DC tape. I'll call this the merged file.

 

Here is the merged file at normal speed.

 

Here it is slowed down 14%.

 

Nice Game or Try Escape?

 

Lastly, here is the full phrase from the DC tape slowed down 14%. This is not a merged file but the pure transmission from the DC tape.

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Comparisons

 

I recorded myself saying nice game and try escape. I attempted to use a high pitch and speak very quickly as the voice on the FAA tape.

 

 

Here's is Victor saying nice game ... click the picture to hear the mp3 file:

 

Here is Victor saying try escape ... click the picture to hear the .mp3 file:

 

Here again is the nice game/try escape phrase from 1415:51 (or :52) on the FAA DC tape (click the picture to hear the .mp3 file):

 

Now ... I copied and pasted the first phrase (up to the center flat line) from the FAA DC tape into a sound file. I pasted it 3 times. So you'll hear it three times rather quickly. Following right behind it, I pasted the first half of my nice game recording (up to the center flat line) into the sound file 3 times. Then I pasted the first phrase (up to the center flat line) from the FAA DC tape into the file again (3 times), followed this time by my try escape recording (up to the center flat line) into the sound file 3 times.

 

Here is the first phrase Comparison mp3 file.

 

I swear I see much more of a resemblance to my "try'es" comment than "nice".

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Comparison of Sten Molin's Voice to the "Try Escape" voice

 

With the approval of Sten Molin's father, Stan Molin, I am making available the following.

 

I isolated a portion of Sten's voice from his home digital answering machine where his quick, high pitched voice becomes apparent as he says, "you've reached 8-6-9...". In this sound file, I include that portion followed immediately by the "try escape" voice from the Departure Control/TRACON (DC) tape. Do you hear a similarity in pitch?

 

Sten's father stated to me (a retired Eastern Airlines Pilot who is still a flight instructor): "I have no doubt that it is Sten's voice. ( I was shocked to hear his voice when I thought the comment was Ed States.). The expression is "try escape?????" (I have no doubt that it is a question to Ed States) The end of the "escape" is raised intonation. I only lived with that voice for 34 and a half years. I could be wrong, but as of now, "I have NO doubts as to the person or the words."

 

A friend of the Molin family, a Police Lieutenant and Pilot, who knew Sten for 20 years, said it was Sten's voice and the words were "try escape".

 

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