Forget:
you make a good point, but I don't think your interpretation of the Erebus flight engineer's comment is valid.
Can I ask you to read Garry Parata's article at
Gary Parata's Article Page 1
where you will find (page 4)
Time
0048:55 ...have we got them on the tower?
No...I’ll try them again
0049:24 I don’t like this
0049:25 have you got anything from him?
no
The “I don’t like this” comment was voiced by the duty flight engineer, and Cooper says the tone and inflection indicated considerable concern.
It fell within the above exchange between the pilots regarding the lack of VHF communications with “Ice Tower.”
Again, the context must be examined in order to correctly interpret the meaning of this passage, rather than assuming theories of “mounting alarm” from the flight engineers being ignored by the pilots. If that had been the case the flight engineers would not have stopped issuing warnings until the pilots acted. As this did not occur it strongly suggests a less immediate reason for the comment.
It is likely that the duty flight engineer was referring to the exchange between the pilots and was simply expressing his unease that, contrary to expectation, no VHF communications were taking place. To put it another way perhaps, if the engineer had issued a warning the “crew loop” would have required that the flight engineer qualify the statement by clearly defining exactly what was bothering him, and then suggesting a course of action.
This second example serves as a further graphic reminder to leave CVR interpretation to the experts:
Same words, but a completely different meaning.