Echoes from Erebus NO PEACE, NO AnSWERS, 30 YEARS ON n November 28 the country will mark the 30th anniversary of the Erebus disaster. + Cover story Mike White investigates why, after so long, the wounds are still so raw for so many and asks if saying sorry would be a step too far. OMIKE WHITE IS A NORTH & SOUTH SENIOR WRITER. PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL ROBERTS, MIKE WHITE, LOU SANSON, AND FROM GETTY IMAGES. 36 | NORTH & SOUTH | NOVEMBER 2009 Two weeks before the crash, the first Air New Zealand sightseeing flight of the summer flies above Scott Base, and is captured on film by Nigel Roberts, then Scott Base’s information officer-photographer. On the morning of the crash, Roberts again waited with his camera, and listened as the Air New Zealand pilots radioed McMurdo Station. Then they went off the air. NIGEL. S. ROBERTS S. NIGEL. NORTH & SOUTH | NOVEMBER 2009 | 37 hat did they think heads of Collins and Cassin, see what they far beyond the 257 whose lives ended that day of in those last did, think what they must have. on the slopes of a smouldering volcano. seconds? What Investigators, judges, politicians, pilots went through their and the public have all overlaid rationality THE TALE OF Flight TE901 on November minds as the alarm on the unknown, done their best to explain 28, 1979, is well recited, from early morning screamed, warn- how the country’s worst aviation disaster Auckland takeoff to wreckage and ragged Wing they were desperately close to the could have occurred. koru in the snow five hours later. ground? Whoop whoop, pull up. Whoop And through it all, bitterness and blame The trip was the 14th Air New Zealand had whoop, pull up. have merged with the grief of thousands, run to Antarctica, a remarkable voyage to Six and a half seconds – the time between vituperative argument over who was re- Earth’s extremity, to see where icebergs were the alarm and obliteration of the Air New sponsible leaving no room for resolution or born, where Scott faltered and where Hillary Zealand DC10 with 257 people aboard. closure. set out for the South Pole by tractor. Two trusted pilots, Captain Jim Collins Erebus is one of those few events where It blended Pan Am-era glamour – scallops, and First Officer Greg Cassin, unaware they virtually everyone over 40 can remember champagne and celebratory cake – with were flying straight towards Antarctic sen- where they were at the time. But it remains a other-worldly adventure and the $329 (more tinel Mt Erebus. troubled recollection for New Zealand, a trag- than $1500 today) seats sold quickly. They had wives, children, parents – did edy time hasn’t healed. Passenger photos recovered from the they have time to think of them? Or as crew We don’t even say “Mount”, we leave out wreckage show clear skies over Antarctica’s reeled off their altitude – 500 feet, 400 feet “plane” and “crash” and just say “Erebus” fringe. But confronted by cloud nearing Ross – did they simply believe their instruments and everyone knows what we mean. That Island, home to New Zealand’s Scott Base were malfunctioning? name, the Greek god of darkness, announces and America’s McMurdo Station, Collins As Collins called for extra power to climb unimaginable death and unending contro- got permission from McMurdo’s air-traffic away, did he ever glimpse the snows that versy for us. control to descend below the cloud, to 2000 would claim them all a blink later? And sadly, what’s become clear over time feet, to give passengers the views they’d For 30 years, we’ve tried to get inside the is that the list of victims from Erebus reaches paid for, later dropping to 1500 feet. 38 | NORTH & SOUTH | NOVEMBER 2009 Above: Mt Erebus, with the Ross Ice Crucially, however, Collins, Cassin and where snow and sky blend, leaving it impos- Shelf on the left, and McMurdo Sound even the on-board commentator, Antarctic sible to distinguish land features. Thus, they sea ice to the right. veteran Peter Mulgrew who’d been on three mistook the gradual slopes of Mt Erebus previous Antarctic flights, all believed they for the level ice of McMurdo Sound. were flying down McMurdo Sound, the 40- Cockpit voice recordings show no alarm mile (64km) wide entrance to the permanent on the flightdeck or sense they were off track. At 12.50pm, the Antarctic iceshelf. In fact, they were 27 miles The first obvious concern was raised by flight 200-tonne plane, (43km) east, on a collision course with the engineer Gordon Brooks 26 seconds before 12,450 feet (3794m) Mt Erebus. impact when he remarked: “I don’t like flying at 260 knots This was due to a remarkable last-minute this.” (481km/h), struck change by Air New Zealand to the coordi- Shortly after, Collins decided to climb away the mountain. nates of the flight’s final waypoint – some- from where they were, also uncomfortable thing the crew hadn’t been advised of. Collins with the situation. The wreckage and Cassin had received those coordinates While debating with Cassin which way spread over 570m before takeoff, entered them into the plane’s to turn, the alarm sounded, warning how close computer and not realised their track would they were to the ground. with fire quickly now take them directly towards Mt Erebus At 12.50pm, the 200-tonne plane, flying at engulfing much of rather than safely down McMurdo Sound 260 knots (481km/h), struck the mountain. it. Despite regular where previous flights had gone. The wreckage spread over 570m with fire Compounding this was the pilots actually quickly engulfing much of it. Despite regular rumours, nobody believed they could see McMurdo Sound rumours, nobody survived the impact. survived the in front of them, stretching towards the horizon, despite being miles away. ONE OF THE FIRST people to visit the scene impact. This deception was caused by a flat light was Nigel Roberts, Scott Base’s information KIM WESTERSKOV / GETTY / WESTERSKOV KIM phenomenon known as “sector whiteout” officer-photographer. Now a political-science NORTH & SOUTH | NOVEMBER 2009 | 39 professor at Victoria University, Roberts they began to appear in his developing trays, personification of censorial justice, was remembers how he’d been ready with his sprawled and strewn figures among the Parnell-living, golf-playing establishment. camera earlier that day to catch the DC10 mechanical detritus. And his political masters expected his no- as it roared overhead. He had waited and His photos – particularly one of the tail nonsense approach would swiftly confirm listened as the pilots radioed McMurdo – section’s koru symbol in the snow – jolted a Chippindale’s findings. Even Mahon ex- and then they’d gone off the air. nation struggling to comprehend what had pected the inquiry to last only a few weeks. His lasting memory of that afternoon and happened. For as small as New Zealand is now, However, as a string of witnesses appeared, evening was the ceaseless drone of search it was an even smaller community in 1979 with Mahon became increasingly concerned about aircraft, warming up, taking off, and then few degrees of separation from the victims Air New Zealand’s evidence. returning after fruitlessly scouring the – everyone seemed to know someone who “[Their] cards were produced reluctantly, surrounding snows. knew someone. And Air New Zealand, with and at long intervals, and I have little doubt Shortly before 1am on November 29, the its “Nobody Does It Better” slogan, was a that there are one or two which still lie in wreckage was spotted on the back side of national jewel. the pack,” he later wrote. Erebus and Roberts was sent in with a rescue In June 1980, Prime Minister Robert After four extensions and visits to team to take photographs. Muldoon announced a Royal Commission Antarctica, Britain, Canada and America, “It was just stunned awe as we flew over, into the accident, to be headed by High Court Mahon shocked the nation in April 1981 thinking, ‘Well, where’s the plane gone?’ Judge Peter Mahon. But before his inquiry when he famously accused Air New Zealand because mostly what was visible was this began, the report of Chief Air Accidents of “an orchestrated litany of lies” and a smear of oil and burnt-out remains. It was Inspector Ron Chippindale was released, “predetermined plan of deception”. just disintegration. Large parts of the plane firmly blaming the pilots for flying too low, He absolved the pilots, instead ruling the were completely eliminated.” in poor visibility, when unsure of their accident’s primary cause was the change of Focused on taking photos, he didn’t notice position. flight coordinates, which the crew were bodies at the time but back in his darkroom Mahon, whose gaunt features seemed the unaware of, compounded by whiteout 40 | NORTH & SOUTH | NOVEMBER 2009 Opposite page and above: The wreckage of the Air New Zealand DC10 was spotted by a US Navy Hercules crew shortly before 1am on November 29, 1979. About 18 hours later, Nigel Roberts was flown to the crash site to photograph the scene.“The picture was one of utter devastation.” which prevented them seeing Erebus. court hearing in the United States, dealing Mahon was merciless on Air New Zealand, with a claim by families of the crew, did With voice detailing a string of incomprehensible errors, however, challenge Mahon’s fundamental recordings, missing documents, evasive testimonies and conclusions.) unbelievable claims from its management. And there the issue festered, Mahon’s passenger While the report comforted victims’ fami- supporters believing he’d accurately pierced photographs, lies, it riled the Prime Minister who publicly an appalling cover-up by an incompetent precise black-box damned Mahon, and it was swiftly appealed airline, while Air New Zealand and the by Air New Zealand.