Air New Zealand Flight 901

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Air New Zealand Flight TE901 was a scheduled Antarctic sightseeing flight from Auckland International Airport in New Zealand. The Antarctic sightseeing flights were operated by McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977, with this being the 14th flight. On 28 November 1979 the flight crashed in Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members aboard.

Contents

1 Flight details
2 The accident

2.1 Circumstances surrounding the accident
2.2 8:21am-12:30pm: Changes to the coordinates and departure
2.3 12:30pm-12:50pm: The collision with Mount Erebus
2.4 12:50pm on: Search and discovery

3 Accident inquiries

3.1 Official accident report
3.2 Mahon Inquiry
3.3 Privy Council appeal

4 Legacy of the disaster
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Flight details

The flight was designed and marketed as a unique sight-seeing experience, carrying an experienced Antarctic guide who pointed out scenic features and landmarks using the aircraft public address system. Such flights had been operating since February of 1977. Passengers would ride the plane into a low-flying sweep of McMurdo Sound, returning to New Zealand the same day of the departure.

Dignitaries such as Sir Edmund Hillary had acted as guides on previous flights. Indeed Sir Edmund had been scheduled to act as the guide for the fatal flight, but had to cancel due to other commitments. Sir Edmund's long-time friend and climbing companion, Peter Mulgrew stood in as guide. The flights usually operated at about 85% of full capacity — the empty seats, usually the centre ones, allowed passengers to move more easily about the cabin to look out of the windows.

The accident

A map of the route taken by flights from New Zealand to Antarctica, which can be found on brochures from Air New Zealand.

Circumstances surrounding the accident

Captain Jim Collins and co-pilot Greg Cassin had never flown to Antarctica before, but they were experienced pilots and the flight was considered a simple one. On November 9, 1979, nineteen days before the departure date, the two pilots had attended a briefing in which they were shown a flight plan used by previous pilots on their own flights to Antarctica. The plan gave coordinates for the trip to the continent including a scenic detour around McMurdo Sound. These coordinates, when entered into the plane's computer, would automatically direct the plane through the flight.

8:21am-12:30pm: Changes to the coordinates and departure

Collins and Cassin inputted the coordinates into the plane's computer before they departed at 8:21am NZDT from Auckland International Airport. The flight was supposed to arrive back in Auckland at 6:09pm. Unbeknownst to them both, the coordinates had been modified earlier that morning and they changed the flight plan to fly 45 kilometres (28 miles) east of where the pilots intended the plane to fly. The coordinates instructed the plane to fly not over McMurdo Sound, but over Lewis Sound and directly into Mount Erebus, a 4024 metre (13200 ft) high volcano.

After a smooth take-off from Auckland and about four hours into the flight, Flight 901 was 70 kilometres (42 miles) away from McMurdo Station. The radio communications center there allowed the pilots to descend to 3050 metres (10000 ft) and to continue "visually." Air safety regulations at the time did not allow flights to descend to lower than 1830 metres (6000 ft), even in good weather. Collins believed the plane was over flat, low ground. The flight that day was being operated by the DC-10 registered ZK-NZP, which was just under five years old.

12:30pm-12:50pm: The collision with Mount Erebus

Collins then told McMurdo Station that he would be dropping further to 610 metres (2000 ft), at which point he switched control of the aircraft to the automated computer system. Unfortunately, the white of the ice blended with the white of the volcano, forming a whiteout. There was no contrast between the two to warn the pilots.

At 12:49pm, the deck altitude device sounded a warning that the plane was too low. There was no time for either Collins or Cassin to divert the aircraft, and six seconds after the warning began blaring, the plane collided directly with the side of Mount Erebus and disintegrated. McMurdo Station attempted to contact Flight 901 following the crash, and informed Air New Zealand headquarters (located in Auckland) that communication with the plane had been lost. United States search and rescue personnel were placed on standby.

12:50pm on: Search and discovery

At 1:00pm New Zealand time, a United States Navy situation report was released, stating:

Air New Zealand Flight 901 has failed to acknowledge radio transmissions. ... One LC-130 fixed wing aircraft and two UH-1N rotary wing aircraft are preparing to launch for SAR effort.

New data gathered at 3:43pm was added to the situation report, stating that the visibility was 40 miles. It also stated that six aircraft had been launched to find Flight 901.

At 10:00pm New Zealand time, about a half-hour after the plane would have run out of fuel, Air New Zealand informed press it believed the aircraft to be lost. Rescue teams searched along the assumed flight path, but found nothing. At 12:55am, the crew of a United States Navy plane discovered unidentifiable debris along the side of Mount Erebus. No survivors could be seen. Twenty hours following the accident, helicopters with search parties managed to land on the side of the mountain. It was confirmed that the wreckage was indeed that of Flight 901 and that all 237 passengers and 20 crew members had been killed. The aircraft altitude at the time of the collision was 445 metres (1465 feet).

Efforts for recovery following the discovery was extensive, owing to the pressure from Japan, from which 24 passengers had been on the plane. The operation lasted until December 9, 1979, with as many as sixty recovery workers on site at a time. Bodies and fragments of the aircraft were flown back to Auckland.

The dead included 200 New Zealanders, 24 Japanese, 22 Americans, 6 British, 2 Canadians, 1 Australian, 1 French, and 1 Swiss. 44 of the victims were not identified, and a funeral for them was held on February 22, 1980.

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

Accident inquiries

Page four from the situation report about Flight 901 released by the United States Navy at 12:55am, with the text: "Debris at crash site being blown by the wind. No apparent survivors."

Official accident report

The accident report compiled by New Zealand's chief inspector of air accidents, Ron Chippindale, was released on 12 June 1980. It cited pilot error as the principal cause of the accident and 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 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.

Mahon Inquiry

Due 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.

Mahon's report, released on April 27 1981, cleared the crew of blame for the disaster. Justice Mahon said the single, dominant and effective cause of the crash was the changing of the aircraft's navigation computer co-ordinates to route the aircraft directly towards Mount Erebus, without the crew being advised. The new flight plan took the aircraft directly at the mountain, rather than along its flank. Due to whiteout conditions, "a malevolent trick of the polar light", the crew were unable to visually identify the mountain in front of them. Furthermore, they may have experienced a rare meteorological phenomenon called sector whiteout which creates the visual illusion of a flat horizon far in the distance. Justice Mahon also found that the radio communications centre at McMurdo Station had authorised Captain Collins to descend to 450 metres (1500 feet), which is below the minimum safe level.

Justice Mahon controversially claimed airline executives engaged in a conspiracy to whitewash the enquiry, famously accusing them of "an orchestrated litany of lies" by covering up evidence and lying to investigators.

Privy Council appeal

Mahon's findings as to the cause of the accident, namely reprogramming of the aircraft's flight plan by the ground crew who then failed to inform the crew, were not challenged before the Privy Council, as they had not been challenged before the Court of Appeal. His conclusion that the crash was the result of the aircrew being misdirected as to their flight path, and was not due to pilot error, therefore remained. But the Board held that Mahon had acted in excess of his jurisdiction and in breach of natural justice by going on to make findings of a conspiracy by Air New Zealand to cover up the errors of the ground staff. In their judgment, delivered on 20 October 1983, the Law Lords dismissed Mahon's appeal and upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had set aside the costs order against the Airline. 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.

"Exhibit 164" was to a photocopied diagram of McMurdo Sound showing a southbound flight path passing west of Ross Island and a northbound path passing the island on the east. The diagram did not extend sufficiently far south to show where, how, or even if they joined, and left the two paths disconnected. Evidence had been given to the effect that the diagram had been included in the flight crew's briefing documentation.

It is important to emphasise again that by 'his case' King was referring to the case of a cover-up, not Mahon's case that the crash was not due to pilot error.

Legacy of the disaster

The crash of flight TE901 remains New Zealand's deadliest disaster, followed closely by the Napier earthquake. The small size of New Zealand (at the time, the country's population was under three million) 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 low temperatures, wind and moisture.

Almost all of the aircraft's wreckage still lies where it came to rest on the slopes of Mt. Erebus, under a layer of snow and ice. During warm periods when snow recedes, it is still visible from the air.

For failing to deliver the result Prime Minister Robert Muldoon expected, Justice Mahon remains something of a controversial public hero.

A sidenote from the disaster was that in 1980 Air New Zealand decided to replace their capable (in spite of the disaster) DC-10 fleet with Boeing 747-200s. In 1981-1982 all DC-10s in the Air New Zealand fleet were sold overseas and replaced by 747s.

References

External links

[Aviation Safety Network: Transcript of flight 901]
[US Navy Situation Report]
New Zealand Ministry of Transport Official Report parts [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], and [6] (all PDF)
[Accident details at planecrashinfo.com]
[Pictures of the original brochure advertising Air New Zealand flights to Antarctica]
[Free eBook: Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster] at Project Gutenberg

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