Tag: Erebus / Flight 901

I read extensively from a number of sources before writing any of the piece serialized over the past few days, and double checked these sources while writing it. Flight 901 is a fascinating topic, perhaps because it was a big deal that we just didn’t hear about on this side of the world, perhaps because of the exotic locales (wait, so we’re going to fly from an island nation that has abundant volcanoes to another continent to look at another volcano there?!?), perhaps because I’m a confessed NZ-phile.

When I first began reading about flight 901, I didn’t have a horse in the race. Ultimately, after reading numerous web sites, articles, and the full Chippindale and Mahon reports, I could personally only reach one conclusion: Captain Collins and his crew were screwed by Air New Zealand. Not because someone was out to kill them – not even remotely. But because there were failures in communication up and down the chain that had become institutionalized – these failures were now standard operating procedure. … Read more

Previously on Scribblings… this week I’ve been writing about Air New Zealand flight TE901, an Antarctic passenger sightseeing flight that crashed into Mt. Erebus on November 28, 1979, killing all aboard. We’ve already looked at the institutional mistakes that were made, and the unfolding tragedy that they caused.

The second investigation of flight 901, known as the Mahon Report, investigated not only the flight and the crash, but the conduct of both Air New Zealand and the principal investigator behind the first report, civil aviation investigator Ron Chippindale. Mahon alleged that Air NZ had quickly shredded documents that would have exposed them to increased liability, and that Chippindale had fallen for the okeydoke without digging deeper. … Read more

Previously on Scribblings… this week I’ve been writing about Air New Zealand flight TE901, an Antarctic passenger sightseeing flight that crashed into Mt. Erebus on November 28, 1979, killing all aboard. Yesterday, I looked at the institutional mistakes that were made leading up to the tragic accident. Today, the accident itself.

In the cockpit of flight 901 were Captain Jim Collins, co-pilot Greg Cassin, flight engineers Gordon Brooks and Nick Moloney, and tour guide Peter Mulgrew, a close friend and fellow adventurer of Sir Edmund Hillary himself; Hillary and Mulgrew alternated tour guide duties on the Antarctic flights, and Mulgrew was in fact filling in for Hillary, who had a prior commitment on the day of the flight. … Read more

Previously, on Scribblings… this week I’m writing about Air New Zealand flight TE901, an Auckland-to-Antarctica round trip sightseeing flight that never returned home, only to be found later in the form of wreckage on the slopes of an active volcano, with all hands lost.

In the absence of survivors, and with nothing immediately jumping out as a red flag on the cockpit voice recorder, investigators and the public were left scratching their heads. Theories ranged from mild to wild. Had yet another DC-10 gone to pieces? (Though later established as a safe and reliable aircraft, the still-young DC-10 didn’t have a perfect batting average at the time, with one nightmare-inducing, all-hands-lost crash on the books for 1979 already.) Had the plane gotten too close to Erebus as the volcano erupted? (Erebus is, after all, one of the most consistently active volcanoes on Earth, even if you never hear about that because of where it is.) Had freak weather conditions blinded the crew and/or their instruments? (Surely not.)

The conclusions of the two investigations into the fate of flight 901 couldn’t have been further apart if they’d tried. … Read more

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