The view from the PCB

1. Several of the officers closest to the West Terrace described attempting to radio the PCB, to alert them to the situation, request assistance or ask for authorisation to open the gates. However, they said their messages didn’t get through, or at least they didn’t get a response.
    
2. The PCB was located on the corner of the West Terrace and South Stand, below the scoreboard. It had windows in line with the perimeter track and front of the West Terrace. Figure 5E shows the view from the PCB across the West Terrace. 

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Figure 5E: View of the West Terrace from the PCB, 1989 (Source: Richard Haylor, WMP)

1. This should have provided those in the PCB with a good view of the unfolding situation—both in terms of seeing the front of the pens and the perimeter gates and having a view from above the pens.
    
2. PC Bichard was the CCTV operator in the PCB. In his 1989 account, he said that at about 2.55pm, those in the PCB began to notice Liverpool supporters climbing up into the West Stand from the terracing below, with people in the West Stand helping them up. However, he said that the same thing had occurred at the 1988 FA Cup Semi-Final.
    
3. Shortly after this, they saw some supporters climbing the perimeter fence and others on the perimeter track. PC Bichard said that he and his colleagues in the PCB assumed it was some sort of crowd trouble.
    
4. In his original account, Supt Murray said that at about 2.58pm he became aware of something happening near the goal area. Though he could not see exactly what was going on, he realised that officers had opened either Gate 3 or Gate 4, or both gates. He said that a handful of supporters were on the perimeter track and were walking calmly and slowly towards Gate 1, while other supporters were standing aimlessly on the track. He recalled that the officer at Gate 1 appeared to be totally unaware of their presence, so Chief Inspector Robert McRobbie (Ch Insp McRobbie), who was in the PCB to observe and not in any operational role, went down to the track to draw the officer’s attention to what was happening.
    
5. In his 1989 account, Ch Supt Duckenfield described this scene in a very similar way. As the numbers of supporters making their way onto the track increased, he said he “considered there may have been a pitch invasion or that people were being taken out for re-location in the two wing pens.” 
    
6. At the Goldring Inquests, he was asked what he thought was happening and whether it occurred to him that it could have been a result of Gate C being opened. He replied that he thought there may have been crowd disorder and that he had made no connection with the opening of Gate C.
    
7. In his 1989 account, Ch Supt Duckenfield said that as the numbers on the pitch increased, he asked for Supt Greenwood to go and find out what was happening. Supt Murray similarly mentioned this in his 1989 account. However, Operation Resolve has found no evidence in Racal recordings or the accounts of officers outside the PCB of any communication with Supt Greenwood.