What has everybody got against the First Officer? Nowhere does it say he "freaked". Presumably both crew were aboard, and the captain probably asked the F.O. to get the radio call out while he dealt with cabincrew/pax liason. As a captain myself, in a case like this I would want the F.O. to make damn sure the ground services knew there was potentially a real problem. The "Joe Cool" radio call is DANGEROUS in this situation.