The mountain that vanished and the plane that never returned
In recent weeks, for no readily apparent reason, I have become almost obsessively fascinated with the worst air disaster in New Zealand history. Of course, I’ve also finished taking a prescription that I’ve been on for the past month which left me in a very tired fog most of the time – sure, it took care of the symptoms and other issues, largely by rendering me too unconscious to give a shit – but a side effect of taking it, aside from an uncontrollably gross amount of sweating even if the room temperature was cold, was about a three-hour period immediately after taking it where I’d have a burst of energy and then just as quickly veg out. I’d look up incredibly obscure stuff online and then stick with that topic for the next few hours.
One topic I began reading on extensively, and stuck with until I’d gone from extensive to exhaustive, was the 1979 crash of a DC-10 passenger plane from New Zealand on the slopes of Mt. Erebus, an active Antarctic volcano. Between 1977 and 1979, the two airlines in New Zealand had competing “sightseeing” flights to Antarctica, allowing the well-heeled to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the coldest place on Earth in shirtsleeve comfort. The flights were strictly go there, circle around a bit without landing to take some pictures through the windows, and go home, and even the haul from one of the southernmost countries in the world to the southernmost continent in the world was a long one: the round trip was basically 12 hours.
The last of these flights never made it home: Air New Zealand flight TE901, a flight which was completely full after the Antarctic sightseeing flights had gotten so much positive publicity in recent weeks. … Read more
