Aviation researcher John King wrote in his book New Zealand Tragedies, Aviation: In their judgement, delivered on 20 October 1983, the five Law Lords of the Privy Council dismissed the Commissioner's appeal and upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal decision, which set aside the costs order against the Airline, on the grounds that Mahon had committed clear breaches of natural justice. The Privy Council subsequently found that Justice Mahon, as Royal Commissioner, had acted in excess of his jurisdiction and contrary to natural justice regarding those allegations. Justice Mahon controversially claimed airline executives engaged in a conspiracy to whitewash the enquiry, covering up evidence and lying to investigators, famously accusing them of "an orchestrated litany of lies". Justice Mahon also found that the radio communications centre at McMurdo Station had authorised Captain Collins to descend to 1500 feet (450 metres), below the minimum safe level. Furthermore, they may have experienced a rare meterological phenomenon called sector whiteout which creates the visual illusion of a flat horizon far in the distance. Due to whiteout conditions, the crew were unable to visually identify the mountain in front of them. The new flight plan took the aircraft directly at the mountain, rather than along its flank. Justice Mahon said the single, dominant and effective cause was the changing of the aircraft's navigation computer co-ordinates to route the aircraft directly towards Mount Erebus, without the crew being advised. Mahon's report, released on April 27 1981, cleared the crew of blame for the disaster. The customary minimum prohibited descent below 6000 feet (1830 metres) even under good weather conditions, but a combination of factors led the captain to believe the plane was over low, flat ground, and previous Flight 901 pilots regularly flew low over the area to give passengers a better view.ĭue to public demand, the New Zealand Government announced a further one-man Royal Commission of Inquiry into the accident, to be performed by Justice Peter Mahon. It attributed blame to the decision of Captain Jim Collins to descend below the customary minimum altitude level, and continue at that height when the crew was unsure of the plane's position. The accident report compiled by the chief inspector of air accidents, Ron Chippindale, was released on 12 June 1980. The two opposing theories are listed below, together with their main points.Īccident inquiries Official accident report The accident is exceptional in that, to this day, controversy exists over the true cause of the accident, and in the amount of responsibility the airline and crew should assume. Forty four of the victims were not identified. The dead included 200 New Zealanders, 24 Japanese, 22 Americans, six British, two Canadians, one Australian, one French, and one Swiss. The wreckage was finally located about 1:00am NZDT by a United States Navy search aircraft. At 10:00pm NZDT, about thirty minutes after the DC-10 would have used the last of its fuel, the airline told reporters that it had to be assumed that the aircraft was lost. US search and rescue aircraft were put on standby. The aircraft altitude at the time of the collision was just 1465 feet (445 metres).Īfter radio contact was lost, McMurdo Station in Antarctica, who had been in radio contact with the flight, kept trying to contact it, and finally informed Air New Zealand headquarters in Auckland that communication with the aircraft had been lost. The flight that day was being operated by the DC-10 registered ZK-NZP, which was just under 5 years old. On November 28, 1979, at 12:49pm NZDT, flight TE901 collided with Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The flight usually operated at about 85% of full capacity - the empty seats allowed passengers to more easily move about the cabin to observe external features. Indeed Hillary had been scheduled to act as the guide for this flight but had to cancel due to other commitments. Dignitaries such as Sir Edmund Hillary had acted as guides on previous flights. The flight was specifically designed and marketed as a unique sight-seeing experience, carrying an experienced Antarctic guide who would point out scenic features and landmarks using the aircraft public address system.
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