Ways to Create a Deathly Silence* on a Conference Call

I am working on 3 different projects currently and I’ve heard 2 different project managers create 2 deathly silences this week.

Project 1
Project Manager: can you detail where we stand with the bugs relating to such and such.
Tech Lead: well, ah.. I need to talk to the QA lead and I’ll send you the details via email later today (note: these bugs have existed for over 2 weeks, so there is no excuse for him not being able to speak to these issues.)
Project Manager: Well, I have to go report to the steering committee on these issues, could you at least give me a sense of the severity of the defects.
Tech lead: Well. Ah.. they’re severe.
…deathly silence…

Project 2:
Project Manager: ok, the conversion process has run into some problems. Right now the theory is that the database has become corrupted. If that is the case, we will need to fix the database and rerun the conversion, which will take 7 days. What that means is that testing in staging will at best be able to begin Dec. 20. Now, let’s talk about resources for the week of Christmas for testing. (said with complete calm as if she were asking about resources for a week in Sept., not a week where there is a major holiday and technology is usually in a freeze, which allows most people to feel safe in planning time off, in fact most people save up their vacation to take that week and up to new years off). Ok, starting with so and so.. what day’s will you be in that week? (note: not to put anyone on the spot or anything, eh?)
…deathly silence…

* defined as over 20 seconds where no one speaks and you start to wonder if people are still breathing it’s so quiet.