Air New Zealand Flight 901

Air New Zealand Flight TE901 was a non stop sightseeing flight from Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to Antarctica and return. The service was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft and began in February 1977.

On November 28, 1979, at 12.49pm local time, the DC-10-30 registered ZK-NZP collided with Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The aircraft altitude was 445 metres (1465ft). Wreckage was located about 1am New Zealand time by a United States Navy search aircraft.

The dead included 200 New Zealanders, 24 Japanese, 22 Americans, six British, two Canadians, one Australian, one French, and one Swiss. Forty four of the victims were not identified.

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. Public opinion also remains polarised.

The two opposing theories are listed below, together with their main points.

The Official Accident Report

The accident report compiled by the chief inspector of air accidents, Ron Chippindale, 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 customary minimum prohibited descent below 1830 metres even under good weather conditions, but the flight plan 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.

The Mahon Inquiry

The New Zealand Government had also announced a one-man Royal Commission of Inquiry into the accident and on April 27, 1981, Justice Peter Mahon released his findings.

The report cleared the crew of blame for the disaster. 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 at Mount Erebus, without the crew being advised. The new flight plan took the aircraft directly at the mountain, rather than along its flank, and due to whiteout conditions, the crew was unable to identify the mountain. Justice Mahon also found that the radio communications centre at McMurdo Station had authorised Captain Collins to descend to 450 metres.

Justice Mahon controversially accused airline executives of cover-up, disposal of evidence and subterfuge, famously using the phrase "orchestrated litany of lies".

The Privy Council Appeal

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. In their judgement, delivered on 20 October 1983, the five Law Lords of the Privy Council dismissed the Commissioners 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. Aviation researcher John King wrote in his book New Zealand Tragedies, Aviation:

They demolished his case item by item, including Exhibit 164 which they said could not "be understood by any experienced pilot to be intended for the purposes of navigation" and went even further, saying there was no clear proof on which to base a finding that a plan of deception, led by the company's chief executive, had ever existed.

Legacy of the Disaster

The crash of flight TE901 remains New Zealand's biggest single disaster. The small size of New Zealand meant that nearly the entire population was affected by the disaster, personally or by association.

A wooden cross was erected above Scott Base to commemorate the accident. It was replaced in 1986 with an aluminium cross after the original was eroded by ice and snow. This accident remains New Zealand's worst ever disaster.

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