Mount Erebus disaster

The Mount Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979 when Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE901) flew into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. Air New Zealand had been operating scheduled Antarctic sightseeing flights since 1977. This flight left Auckland Airport in the morning and was supposed to spend a few hours flying over the Antarctic continent, before returning to Auckland in the evening via Christchurch.

The initial investigation concluded the accident was caused primarily by pilot error, but public outcry led to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash. The commission, presided over by Justice Peter Mahon, concluded that the accident was primarily caused by an automatic correction made to the coordinates of the flight path the night before the disaster, coupled with a failure to inform the flight crew of the change, with the result that the aircraft, instead of being directed by computer down McMurdo Sound (as the crew had been led to believe), was instead rerouted to a path toward Mount Erebus. Justice Mahon's report accused Air New Zealand of presenting "an orchestrated litany of lies", and this led to changes in senior management at the airline. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council later ruled that the finding of a conspiracy was a breach of natural justice and not supported by the evidence.

The accident is the deadliest in the history of Air New Zealand, the deadliest aviation accident in Antarctica, and New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster.

Flight and aircraft

Flight 901 was designed and marketed as a unique sightseeing experience, carrying an experienced Antarctic guide, who pointed out scenic features and landmarks using the aircraft's public-address system, while passengers enjoyed a low-flying sweep of McMurdo Sound. The flights left and returned to New Zealand the same day. The plane left Auckland International Airport at for Antarctica, and was scheduled to arrive back at Christchurch International Airport at after flying . The aircraft would make a 45-minute stop at Christchurch for refuelling and a crew change, before flying the remaining to Auckland, arriving at . Tickets for the November 1979 flights cost per person

The aircraft used for Antarctic flights were Air New Zealand's eight McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 trijets. The aircraft on 28 November was registered ZK-NZP.

The 182nd DC-10 to be built, and the fourth DC-10 to be introduced by Air New Zealand, ZK-NZP was handed over to the airline on 12 December 1974 at McDonnell Douglas's Long Beach plant. It had logged more than 20,700 flight hours prior to the crash. Captain Thomas James "Jim" Collins, age 45, was an experienced pilot who had accumulated 11,151 flight hours, including 2,872 hours in the DC-10. First Officer Gregory Mark "Greg" Cassin, age 37, had accumulated 7,934 flight hours, including 1,361 in the DC-10. Flight Engineer Gordon Barrett Brooks, age 43, had 10,886 flight hours, including 3,000 in the DC-10 (Brooks had also been Flight Engineer on the Air New Zealand flight involved in the Cessna 188 Pacific rescue in 1978). Also on board were First Officer Graham Neville Lucas, age 39, and Flight Engineer Nicholas John "Nick" Moloney, age 44. Flight Engineer Moloney had a total of 6,468 flight hours, including 1,700 in the DC-10. The majority of the previous 13 flights had also entered this flight plan's coordinates into their aircraft inertial navigational system and flown the McMurdo Sound route, unaware that the route flown did not correspond with the approved route. compared the coordinates of the McMurdo tactical air navigation system (TACAN) navigation beacon (about east of McMurdo NDB), and the McMurdo waypoint that his flight crew had entered into the inertial navigation system (INS), and was surprised to find a large distance between the two. After his flight, Captain Simpson advised Air New Zealand's navigation section of the difference in positions. For reasons that were disputed, this triggered Air New Zealand's navigation section to update the McMurdo waypoint coordinates stored in the ground computer to correspond with the coordinates of the McMurdo TACAN beacon, despite this also not corresponding with the approved route.

The Air New Zealand computer program was altered so that the standard telex forwarded to American air traffic controllers (ATCs) at the United States Antarctic science facility at McMurdo Station displayed the word "McMurdo", rather than the coordinates of latitude and longitude, for the final waypoint. During the subsequent inquiry, Justice Mahon concluded that this was a deliberate attempt to conceal from the United States authorities that the flight plan had been changed, probably because it was known that US air traffic control (ATC) would lodge an objection to the new flight path.

The flight had earlier paused during the approach to McMurdo Sound to carry out a descent, via a figure-eight manoeuvre, through a gap in the low cloud base (later estimated to be at around ) while over water to establish visual contact with surface landmarks and give the passengers a better view. In addition, preflight briefings for previous flights had approved descents to any altitude authorised by the US ATC at McMurdo Station. As the US ATC expected Flight 901 to follow the same route as previous flights down McMurdo Sound, and in accordance with the route waypoints previously advised by Air New Zealand to them, the US ATC advised Flight 901 that it had a radar that could let them down to . The radar equipment did not pick up the aircraft, however, and the crew also experienced difficulty establishing VHF communications. The distance measuring equipment did not lock onto the McMurdo TACAN for any useful period.

Crash into Mount Erebus

thumb|300x300px|Mount Erebus

thumb|right|300px|Flight path of Flight 901

Collins told McMurdo Station that he would be dropping to , at which point he switched control of the aircraft to the autopilot. Outside, a layer of clouds blended with the white snow-covered volcano, forming a sector whiteout – no contrast between ground and sky was visible to the pilots. The effect deceived everyone on the flight deck, making them believe that the white mountainside was the Ross Ice Shelf, a huge expanse of floating ice derived from the great ice sheets of Antarctica, which was in fact now behind the mountain. Whiteout was little understood, even by the company’s experienced polar pilots—Air New Zealand had provided no training for the flight crew on the sector whiteout phenomenon. Consequently, the crew thought they were flying along McMurdo Sound, when they were actually flying over Lewis Bay in front of Mount Erebus. Six seconds later, the plane crashed into the side of Mount Erebus and exploded, instantly killing everyone on board. The accident occurred at 12:50 pm at a position of and an elevation of above mean sea level.

{| class="wikitable"

! Country

! Passengers

! Crew

!Total

| New Zealand

|style="text-align:center;"|180

|style="text-align:center;"|20

|style="text-align:center;"|200

| Japan

|style="text-align:center;"|24

| United States

|style="text-align:center;"|22

| United Kingdom

|style="text-align:center;"|6

| Canada

|style="text-align:center;"|2

| Australia

|style="text-align:center;"|1

| France

|style="text-align:center;"|1

| Switzerland

|style="text-align:center;"|1

|Total

|style="text-align:center;"|237

|style="text-align:center;"|20

|style="text-align:center;"|257

Rescue and recovery

Initial search and discovery

At 2:00 pm, the United States Navy released a situation report stating:

External links

 
The Erebus Story – Loss of TE901 (includes Newspaper Articles and Video footage) – New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association
The original brochure advertising Air New Zealand flights to Antarctica
Aircraft Accident Report No 79-139 Air New Zealand McDonnell-Douglas DC10-30 ZK-NZP Ross Island Antarctica 28 November 1979 – the official accident report ("The Chippendale Report")
(audio file) ABC Radio National program "Ockham's Razor": "Arthur Marcell takes us through some of the events leading up to the crash and has a few questions for modern navigators." transcript
NZ Special Service Medal (Erebus) 2006
Erebus disaster (NZHistory.net.nz) –includes previously unpublished images and sound files
Erebus Aircraft Accident–Christchurch City Libraries
Erebus for Kids–This site is for young school children to provide information about the Erebus Tragedy.
Erebus Memorial: Erebus Memorial Names – official New Zealand Ministry for Culture & Heritage memorial site.
BBC News: The plane crash that changed New Zealand

Flight and aircraft

Crash into Mount Erebus

Rescue and recovery

Initial search and discovery

Further reading

External links