I was 9 years old and my teacher was on this flight. She was so excited about this trip and we were looking forward to hearing her stories. She was a wonderful lady and teacher. It's all still very heartbreaking 45 years later.
I paused it as many times as I could looking for her but I don't think it was. Randomly my sister was looking for photos of herself as a youngster recently and one of the first photos we came across amongst many large envelopes in a whole suitcase full of photos was my class photo of that year. Perhaps there's some kind of situational bias but I have always felt that she was the most kind and patient teacher I ever had. Rest in peace Ms Nicholson ❤️
Two of my High School teachers also died on that plane together with their wives. The two of them were close friends and often set tasks and then chatted in the hallway together. Very very sad.
I've always found the photos taken onboard to be especially haunting. Also, what horrid luck for the woman who wanted to bail but then let herself be talked into reboarding.
@@edwinov That was a fictional movie. Show some respect to the real people who perished, including that poor woman, who might well have lived a full (though laced with survivor guilt) had she not re-boarded.
I'm from NZ and i can confirm the phrase "an orchestrated litany of lies" was common knowledge for many years, and still is among people of a certain age. I was a toddler when the disaster happened but I can remember it being a topic of conversation for my parents after i was 10. It had a massive impact on this country for sure.
I think historical research into the NZ govt covid response will be found there was an orchestrated litany of lies spoken there too especially around the idea that by mandating the vaccine transmission would not happen in workplaces.
That poor clean up crew. I don't know if a lot of people realize that "bodies" in an airplane crash are almost never whole bodies. It's picking up limbs, torsos and bits and pieces. I can't imagine how traumatic that must be.
It was done because of the many Japanese passengers, it's important in their culture to have a body to bury, I hope the hard work of our rescuers was appreciated in Japan.
As a 16 year old in 1977 I won an essay competition, the prize for which was a scenic flight for two to Antarctica. I took my mum and we had a thoroughly amazing time. We were seated in first class, directly behind the McDonnell-Douglas CEO. Many passengers were drunk by the time we got to Antarctica. Capt Vette was the pilot and Peter Mulgrew the expert commentator. And yes, we descended through 1500 feet over McMurdo Sound. Two years later we sat glued to radio and TV that horrible evening as it became clear what had happened, and couldn't help imagining that it was us.
I worked with an real cool engineer in the 90s who had a ticket for this flight, but had to cancel due to work requirements. He was going to try rebook for the next chance to go. With his link to this disaster, he may watch this. If you read this, yes I'm talking about you, J.T.!!
This brings back some traumatic personal memories. One of the passengers killed was Earl Beaumont whom I knew very well. He was the head Janitor at my Elementary School in North Vancouver, BC, Canada then moved to my High School, Handsworth, when I did. He was liked by everyone and it was common for me to pop into his furnace room and chat with him. We'd even help him when we could and he'd taught me how to mop a floor properly. Later I played with his son Gary who was ten years older, in the 15th Field Regiment Band. The odd thing was I never connected Gary with his father until later. In June 1979 Earl Retired and the school gave him a huge sendoff because everyone loved him. They bought him a trip around the world and it was my sister, Jane, at Mercury Travel who handled all the bookings and tickets. The newspapers reported the story and he was interviewed by a TV Station expressing how happy and excited he was. I had moved to Calgary by then but on Nov 29th was resting back at home after a bad workplace accident. Jane phoned me that morning in tears telling me what she knew before any of the news outlets reported on the story. It was a big news story in Vancouver, especially in North Van where many people were visibly shaken. On Dec 8th, a cold Saturday afternoon, St Andrew's Church was so overflowing with mourners they opened the front doors so people outside could hear. I sat with Jane not far from Gary, who was just 33, and the rest of Earl's family. That was when I realized Earl was Gary's father. He was also very humble and quiet so had never mentioned his father but now the whole town knew. Gary said that seeing the hundreds of grieving people made him realize what a great man his father had been and brought him some peace.
Steve (I hope I got it right), I get the feeling that you are an awesome person. I hope your life was blessed by this man you mentioned and that God TRULY has blessed you. Hope I get to meet you some day.
My sister worked with one of them and his normal work was rather unusual. Employee at the Civic Theatre part time and also the elephant keeper at Auckland Zoo. I think he volunteered to go to the crash site.
What a classy comment, David. Kind of renews MY faith in humanity, despite the ugliness surrounding parts of the investigations. What a hideous job those people had, but they persevered through the ghastly conditions. What a shame that other people were obviously working against them. Cheers, David.
Most New Zealanders who were alive at the time still consider this incident to be involuntary manslaughter on the part of Air New Zealand and emotions still run high regarding the event. To this day there are some very hard feelings and its only that those who lied and hoodwinked are all dead that we don't outright call that airline murderers.
While I can't speak for every Tasmanian, the connection between Tasmania and Antarctica is very strong. Being an island also "off the coast of Australia", we also feel (from time to time) a kinship with "Our East Islands"😘. Personally, at the time, I deeply felt this. And many family and friends mentioned that it was akin to the true (if not problematic) spirit of ANZAC. No Tasmanian that I know with an interest in Antarctica has ever forgotten the coverup.
I flew once with Captain Collins - also Gordon Vette was a good friend of my family, and a very great man who worked tirelessly to clear Collins name. I remember Vette saying that Collins was a fantastic pilot and would never have done anything that any other pilot in Air New Zealand wouldn't have done. Corporations will always sacrifice individuals unfortunately, but the level of conspiracy here with evidence from the scene going missing and robbery of of two crew's houses is still even today extremely concerning.
@@patrickpaganini Fantastic pilot or not, without high resolution synthetic aperture ground mapping radar and a moving map display, which ALL airliners MUST HAVE, he had no idea he was going to slam into a 13,000 foot volcano. Common sense will tell anyone it is suicidal flying at 10,000 feet, into an uncertain, uneven, mountainous, huge glacier where you have never been before - with nothing but a radio beacon, compass, preset waypoints and a useless weather radar to guide you. Add in terrain-following radar, automated down to 200 feet, and you won't ever hear of ground collisions again. I am shocked in this day and age that an airliner costing a few hundred million dollars does not have ground mapping radar.
@@ThamMalaysia Every airliner I’ve ever flown has had the ability to map ground with it’s radar, but I’ve never found it useful because we know where terrain is and we know where we are. We have multiple IRUs, DMEs and GPSs feeding information into our FMS, so it’s easy to avoid terrain on a bad day where you can’t see anything. Where it gets problematic is on a “somewhat good day” like VFR at night with terrain. One might be tempted to be lax with all that navigation equipment when cleared for a visual approach but prudence demands that we backup ourselves. These poor souls had some kind of FMS, probably getting info from one VORDME, and then the waypoints programmed into the database. If the names of the waypoints were the same but the lat/longs changed without the crew’s knowledge, it’s really a bad setup. If they had radar that could show water as black and snow as a return, it might have let them know something was wrong, but that’s a lot of ifs. A very strange and sad story.
Thank you for telling that story. The men who were tasked with staying out there and conducting body parts recovery are absolute heroes and should be recognized. Charred human grease is something that none of us would ever want to deal with, much less have to handle as much as they did. A real example of old souls doing their level best for the families of the lost.
Grease wasn't the half of it The fires melted the snow, maimed corpses sank into the slush and were then frozen into blocks of a metre deep ice that had to be pickaxed open for recovery.
The Chippendale report is the most unbelievable thing that I have read. The flight was doomed because they were sent directly towards a 14,,000 foot mountain. Any altitude below this meant certain death. The report brushes over this fact as if it doesn't exist.
I concur. So much fuss was made of their decision to descend, but the US base okayed it that day and Air NZs advertising specifically emphasised low level flights and Qantas also participated in those too. If they'd been higher unfortunately they still would have hit Erebus and it would have made retrieval of bodies, and evidence so much more difficult...
Nope. "Fuss was made over their decision to descend" because it is *altitude* which keeps aircraft safe. That is why the minimum safe altitude for the region was 16000 ft with 6000 ft permitted once Erebus had been passed. The navigation system is not purposed for terrain avoidance; they were using it as such in a way it was never intended. High altitude flight plans change all the time. In aviation circles Ron Chippendale remained highly respected until his death.
@kevjoseph1032 Thanks for the tip, but having studied every credible publication on this distaster since 1979 as well as being a pilot, I doubt your suggestion is going to add terribly much. Doubtless, "the pilots were blameless" mantra has the public zeitgeist. But it's quite wrong. Collins made some crucial errors of judgment and displayed poor situational awareness.
I did the Qantas Antarctic sightseeing flight out of Sydney a couple of years ago. It was an absolutely fantastic experience. We had incredibly clear weather. The planes fly at higher altitudes now, of course, but even so the views were magnificent. The atmosphere in the cabin was very vibrant and convivial as we all moved around from window to window. Yet, at the first mention and views of Mt Erebus a sad and respectful silence fell across all the passengers. Even after 40 years it was very moving.
I've done one of those flights too and it was brilliant. We didn't go over Mt Erebus but in doing the flight, it was how I found out about this accident. You're right about the atmosphere on board, it was amazing.
@@DavidBritton-nl1wv I think so. They certainly know about the cruises you can do there and they dismiss them as "only going to where the government allows." As usual, anything that disproves their nonsense, they just dismiss as fake.
I was 4 yrs old at the time and remember it well. This was NOT a case of pilot negligence, nor recklessness! The powers that be decided to alter the navigational course that the flight would take on the fateful day... and omitted to inform the flight crew! The course alteration was also miss-entered which saw the flight take a direct course straight into Mt Erebus. The flight crew basically flew directly into a mountain that they both couldn't see (due to "white-out" conditions) nor were expecting to see. It shouldn't have been there.
A boy from my school was one of the victims and there is another victim buried in one of the Napier cemeteries. I remember listening to the radio that night and the flight being overdue. The next morning, finding it had crashed. We don't forget.
It seems judges are politicised, same as police forces..both state departments are supposed to be impartial yet seemingly do the bidding of governments.
@@alanskinner7031 Unless you're in the USA. Then it's the insurance companies that don't ever do anything wrong. It's always the patient's fault. And if not the patient, then the doctors and nurses.
I'm a New Zealander and while studying for my anthropology degree I was granted access to the all the documents and photographs from the Erebus disaster, including all the photos taken at the crash site. I won't describe what I saw in those photographs, but those images are burned in my brain until I die or develop dementia, whichever comes first.
Thankfully those images you saw seem unavailable on the internet. The photos I found of Operation Overdue show many of the green flags in the snow, but nothing else. For that i am grateful, as inevitably making videos like mine you do come across some truly horrible images...
@@theravenseye9443 Human grease pretty much tells the story. I agree that the environment would have mitigated the smell, and thankfully we don't have scratch-n-sniff technology yet.
My father in law was one of the NZ police that went to Antarctica tasked with recovering the bodies, he said whenever he smelled jet fuel or Kerosene it took him straight back to Erebus.
Was at high school when this occurred the whole country was shocked even more so when it was discovered flight coordinates had been changed and covered up after and the famous quote used to describe it "An orchestrated litany of lies!" Auckland New Zealand 2024
I to was at high school when this disaster happened. My parents knew Justice Mahon well and considered him to be a man of the utmost integrity and honesty and did I. He said what needed to be said & I firmly believe it to be correct. Air New Zealand has over the years had many achievements, not all of them can be considered great, this includes a government bail-out (or two). Personally I have found some of their CEO's to be rather ruthless and unfortunately one of them is now our Prime Minister (You can't run a country like a company Mr Luxon). Political expediency is often the name of the game and this is very sad.
@@mvd4436 Yes, those are keyed into the navigation computer, linked to the autopilot. The computer simply flies you to the next waypoint, just a coordinate. The computer does not know what that waypoint is. If that coordinate is a mountain, it will also fly you there.
I am a polar meteorologist who specifically studies the topographical influence of winds, especially in the Ross Island and other coastal regions. Flying that low even during clear air days is already insane to me due to the potential of mountain wave induced turbulence. That entire area has some of the most intensely focused forecasting techniques to ensure nothing like this happens ever again. I hope all of the victims are resting in peace.
An airliner - due to the aircraft makers scrimping on money - has no ground mapping radar, let alone terrain following radar, All they give you is a lousy weather radar. Poor navigation aids relying on a crude radio beacon and preset waypoints. And yet these idiots flew so low into uncertain, hazardous territory, knowing there is a huge volcano almost half as high as Everest in that vicinity ?
Then you don't really understand the aerodynamics of a 200 tonne aircraft at 250 kts. The crew never expected to get within a few km of any high ground and even a 200 knot wind over the surface wouldn't be a danger to the aircraft, rotors might present serious turbulence for the passengers but the aircraft wouldn't be compromised.
@@nojwod Nothing to do with flight dynamics. That is beside the point. Whether you expect it or not, you KNOW. That it what a RADAR is for. It REVEALS what you CANNOT SEE forty miles in front of you. Common sense tells you with the proper sensors, you have EYES. With ground mapping and terrain-following radar, 300 people would be alive today. Tell this to those stupid and stingy idiots at Boeing, Airbus, McDonnell Douglas.
Same here my age 15 years old on the day 28th November 1979 Adelaide, South Australia. Flew TE Air New Zealand on the BIG 10...marketed at the time DC-10 with the airline many times. A beautiful aircraft was the DC-10, and a great airline TE was with service and staff on board. Never flew ZK-NZP. Did ZK-NZT new only a few weeks old at the time 1978 plus many others on the TE DC-10 fleet. ZK-NZS still now exists being preserved. My final flight on TE DC-10 was February 1981 LAX to SYD with cockpit visit beautiful memories. The BIG 10 was replaced with Boeing 747-219B by 1983 but flying on board TE B747 classic, new at time, was different. Still love the BIG 10. Miss the DC-8 as well! A loss on TE 901 I feel a lot with it all and it had an impact with me too. I know sadly. Ansett 727.
I'm excited to see that this channel is so close to 100k subscribers! It is a hidden gem and has never had the level of subscription that I thought it should. Congratulations!!!
The coverup was almost as fucked as the crash itself. The fact that the coordinates were quietly changed seemingly in the dead of night without informing anyone reeks of an assassination attempt.
Cool Story mate.... assassination lol no. Just people (human error) being idiots with nav vs not informing the changes of said new nav points. Then coverup by corporate as they knew they'd F-up and tried to hide the fact.
Not that but it was cooperate asscovering after. They had the co-pilots house burgled. No money or valuables were taken. But all things relating to the work. Who would do that? There were documentaries about that. Air NZ and the government conspired to cover this up and blame the pilot. A royal commission was called. The term "orchestrated litany of lies " is well known in New Zealand still today
To believe that you'd have to believe the pilot was flying blind and had no idea where he was or where he was going or had any awareness of the flight plan... Which hardly absolves the pilot of responsibility either since those things are all the pilot's responsibility. The conspiracy theory makes zero sense.
@@Dilley_G45Aussie here I've watched several of those docs. Agreed its relatively well know in this part of the world. For most Mahon's findings are regarded as the correct ones The poster above is suggesting a theory based on nothing. It has no substance whatsoever
@@bubba99009 That there was a conspiracy between the government and the airline is fact. It's also fact that documents were stolen and that documents were destroyed.
In the 80's as part of my training, I watched a film about the recovery of the bodies. The logistics involved were staggering. I'll never forget the ariel film of literally HUNDREDS of body parts scattered for a mile in every directions. Endless red soaked spots in the virgin white snow marked each and every part of a lost soul.
Hey there Raven, just noticed how close you are to the promised land of 100,000 subscribers, and wanted to say congratulations, you've worked hard for it and you've earned it, I remember joining at about 10 000 and saying your channel was about to blow up ! Looks like I was right. Well done, brother, well done indeed. 🙏 👏👏👏
My dad was a travel agent for Air NZ in Hamilton. I was 8 at the time and I remember this day like it was yesterday, everything, the teachers at school talking to us about it, because a couple of kids lost their parents in the crash, and the news reports, newspapers etc. A really dark time for New Zealand 😢 still haunts me.
I was deployed to McMurdo US Base on Ross Island at the base of Mount Erebus in 1984, 1985 and 1986. I was a Navy helicopter crew chief flying in UH-1 N as seen at 11:42. I flew in that number 11 helo during my time in McMurdo and back at VXE-6 Squadron Point Mugu, California Naval Air Station. We had six helicopters for missions. Our max ceiling was 15K above sea level. We could see the wreckage every flight overs Erebus. I set foot on top of Erebus with a walk around Oxygen bottle and video camera in 1985. We would do air drops to the scientists on the side of Erebus. Due one of the helos crashing without fatalities, we were then limited to 10K operations, so no more trips to the crater rim at the top.
I remember as a thirteen year old sitting at home with my family in Henderson, West Auckland watching the news bulletins on the tele. The last one I saw said that they would've been out of fuel and hopefully down on the ice ( safely) or ditched in the Southern Ocean. Also, for many years in the NZ Herald on November 28th, the parents of a stewardess killed in the crash would put a poem in the "in memorium" section. The poem was about a lass named Katrina. RIP.
My father was a consultant to the airline (marketing) & it hit me hard as our family could have all been on that flight. Thank God for turning them down. I couldn't personally sleep for weeks. I was 19 at the time. Dad is about to turn 90 yrs old. Guess it wasn't our time!
I sat in my house listening, waiting for the news that the flight had landed, and felt a sudden crushing sadness when the news came out that there was no chance the flight was still airborne. Morrie Davis was a crook. It was he who orchestrated the house theft of Jim's atlas maps where he had drawn the flight plan and discussed it with his Wife, the intentional shredding of files, including the changes to the flight computer. Having been in LandSAR, I know a couple of Policemen who were there, and they still talk about what they saw and did ( but mostly to others who were there ). One who found the ( Jim's ) flight log book, said it he was directed to immediately hand it over, but also said it was all complete when he did so. There is overwhelming, consistent, meticulous evidence that the Mahon report is correct.
Well researched and presented, thanks. I was 12 years old, living in Christchurch NZ and my father had spent nine seasons in Antarctica. So we had a close interest in the event. It was a warm November evening when the news was announced. Total disbelief and confusion seemed to be the lasting memory. Poor passengers and rescue staff. A tough piece of our history.
there is something special about you and your presentation of content..always very interesting and rare incidents..have been a loyal subscriber since the day i watched a video of yours..and to that i say you deserve many more subscribers and views..you will continue to grow..thx again..
I'll never forget listening to the news with my Dad when the crash occurred, and then the final report - a litany of lies - I'll never forget this. Companies will always only consider themselves, there is zero accountability and blame avoidance.
My father was working down in Antarctica at the time and was involved in the search for what ended up being human remains. He said the stench of aviation fuel was so bad, and still reminds him to this day of that crash
I live in New Zealand, Christchurch in fact., TE901 departed from Auckland.,i was working at a supermarket packing shelfs when over the intercom radio. They said that this flight was now overdue to arrive back at Auckland International Airport, never will forget that day!.
It seems Brian, that after the Antarctic sight-seeing portion of the flight, you're not aware that the aircraft was supposed to have first landed back in Christchurch and then refueled with a crew change and then onwards to Auckland around 45 minutes after landing in Christchurch?
Love the channel and so happy I found it. Finally, well researched, rich content that organized and narrated clearly and proficiently. Thank you for caring more about quality than monetary gain.
It would be one thing if the airline admitted they had made an (honest) mistake and paid compensation to the victims. Everyone knows, when they get on an airplane, that accidents happen. No matter how rare it is, we are all rolling the dice when we fly, assuming the benefits to be greater than the risk. It's an entirely different kettle of fish when the airline knows they made a mistake and does everything they can to shirk responsibility. There are reasons I would never fly on Russian or Chinese airlines. It makes me want to think of not flying with New Zealand air and no, that's nothing against new Zealand or New Zealanders themselves.
@@trevorstolz8580 The issue is that compensation was limited by the Warsaw Convention to (IIRC) $75,000 per person, but if the airline admitted fault, it would be open to lawsuits in American courts, and that could run to billions of dollars. The government, cash-strapped in those days, could not allow that to happen. I presume that all on board were covered by New Zealand's Accident Compensation scheme (ACC), although the accident happened outside New Zealand. I grew up thinking NZ was a country of exceptional honesty and probity, but this episode involving corruption and cover-up was a loss of innocence. Of course, today New Zealand is much wealthier (though much less egalitarian), and the airline has been partially privatised.
I wanted to find out who the people in the video were, to put a name to the faces, but there doesn't seem to be much. I did find out the gentleman at 5:36 moving from left to right and sitting down, is Frank Christmas, the girl at 5:38 is Melinda Arnold, who'd just turned 17 and was one of the youngest on the flight, and there's a cabin crew gentleman holding glasses and I think a bottle at 5:40 who may be Michael Finlay but it's so fleeting. I did find a roll of remembrance which has photos of all the crew, but the passenger photos are minimal. Does anyone know about any other sites?? There are some very good documentaries about Overdue as well, I watched one a while ago concentrating on the police workers and how unappreciated their work was until recently. They were just supposed to slot back into their normal jobs, with no support for any distress or damage over what they'd experienced.
As a former Air NZ Engineer who was at work at Mangere on the day of the crash I will never forget the sadness that consumed us all on hearing the aircraft was overdue.I will always believe there was a coverup of sorts that lead a competent and skilled crew flying unknowingly into Mt Erebus.Sadly whiteout conditions they encountered were the real contributor on the day of the crash .
I’m so curious to know more about the attitudes of non-executive employees of Air NZ at the time. What was the company culture like for you? What were the signs at the time that clued you into there being a cover up?
@mattthrun-nowicki8641 we were in shock and mourning like all New Zealanders, all the passenger's families and our colleagues families. We were and still are a tight knit bunch. Husband's, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, sons and daughters and just plain old friends. We lost so much. Our integrity our innocence. It was bad enough to mourn through the disaster, but to still live, and continue to work for an airline, our airline, my airline, was tough as motmre and more was revealed through the years of inquiries and hearings. We stayed loyal to ourselves, our colleagues our passengers and the koru. We did our best to rise above the stigma attached to orchestrated litany of lies, because we still had a job to do and we wanted to do that to the best of our ability. It was important to believe in ourselves if nothing else. Thank goodness for Gordon Vette, Peter Mahon who sought nothing but the truth! Because that's all we ever wanted was the truth.
@rowanscott915 respectfully, the aircraft had been in contact with the US base McMurdo. To the best of my knowledge talking with other Flight Deck involved in the inquiry, McMurdo Base refused to hand over their transcriptions from that day. If the aircraft's voice recorder held only 30 minutes of these recordings before relooping, any communication with Mc Murdo was quite possibly looped over. Hence the request to McMurdo Base, to help fill in those gaps. Respectfully, Wendy x
@@wendycooper7060 there's a lot more to the disaster than people realise in my opinion. Whilst the nav was seriously flawed, the pilot did descend to a low altitude without being sure of the location. At the end of the day, it was a tragic, horrid, terrible moment in our country's history. Those of us who were at Air New Zealand at the time will never forget the hollow feeling. I know that you suffered greatly from the tragedy and I applaud you for your mature way of talking about this subject. Cheers Pete
They were in no way trained or prepared for what they had to do. While it was in a sense in keeping with the rough and ready attitude of NZ at the time, the Police on the recovery mission suffered terribly
I was on air at Radio Avon, Christchurch NZ, doing the 7 'til midnight shift when journalist Brian Worthington stepped into the studio and said, "An Air New Zealand plane is missing over Antarctica." That moment is indelibly etched upon my soul. An enormous tragedy.
The fact that the lady knew what was coming beforehand but was shooed back onto the plane is absolutely chilling. If you get a feeling like that, ALWAYS, _ALWAYS,_ *_ALWAYS_* trust your gut.
I remember watching the TV news that night when I was 15, it was the first time I had ever seen a presenter (male) brought to tears. This video brought back memories.
This is the best channel on youtube, you have heart, you do your research and are very compassionate and articulate. I love your documentaries, your spoken word is tactful, easy to understand and very respectful of the stories you tell. Thank you, don't ever change.❤
I hate the word with a passion, but this channel is truly underrated, the videos are always fascinating and you never expect the next topic he'll tackle!
Some good did come out of the Erebus disaster namely better Terrain Avoidance and Warning Systems (TAWS). The issue is the early Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) as fitted to TE901 used a radio altimeter that looked straight down for measuring distance from terrain. By the time the GPWS warning sounded the jet was already over the lower mountain slopes and escape was impossible. I fly a small 4 seat aircraft and even this plane today has TAWS with a Forward Looking Terrain Avoidance (FLTA) function. If this happened today on a modern jet, the FLTA function will provide a timely warning giving the crew enough time to execute a successful terrain escape maneuver. The Erebus disaster certainly was cited for the push for better TAWS and it may provide some small measure of comfort for those who lost loved ones to know this.
Feels like a cover up classic. Poor people on the plane. then the poor people on the ground sweeping up the people parts. huge respect to the rescue crew and after all that i think id have a stiff drink, no pun intended. great reporting as allways sir also good luck on 100k
Wow that side-by-side comparison photo of McMurdo & Ross Bays really made the whole case for me. The guys wouldn't ever have seen the terrain until they were planting their faces into it. Imagine their utter confusion in that last second.
@@wendycooper7060 Oh, that is tragic. How he must feel when he sees this fleeting glimpse of her just before the terrible crash. Our lives hang on a thin thread which can be snapped at any time. We really don't know the minute .......
In 2019, prime minister Jacinda Ardern apologised on behalf of the airline for failing in its duty for flight 901. That was, in my view, an admission of guilt from Air New Zealand. After 40 years of despair and anguish from the victim’s family. Better late than never… However, absolutely revolting cover up from the airline and the authorities at the time. RIP. [ EDITED: Most of the comments below are about Jacinda Ardern, and your dislike of her. The point being it was a coward admission of guilt from Air New Zealand about the crash. The messenger in that case is irrelevant. Let’s not forget it’s about flight 901 and its victims. Peace everyone]
Met a English Gypsy lady on 300 Queen Street.- Auckland city, and pronto- She knew my mothers French Royal family had died violently in the French Revelution0 1779, - She ran upp Queen Street as her reading made her solid body shake violentlly , so perhaps these Gypsys can warn us about these Earth Shacking Events.- ????
Erebus - Into The Unknown is a very good drama-documentary of this. It's based on the recovery crew and their experiences both during the operation and witnessing the coverup. It's a tough watch in places, but gives a lot of insight into what these people went through in the aftermath.
At least for Kiwis my age, Mahon is remembered as something of a hero. Everyone blames corporate AirNZ bosses, and the cover up was worse than the originating crime (which was terrible in and of itself)
As a pilot if 40 years, there's no doubt as to the cause of the crash. One of the first things even a student pilot learns, is never fly into cloud not knowing exactly where you are, because there's probably a mountain hiding in it! These pilots knew that rule! The ONLY reason they would continue flight in a white out condition BELOW the peaks if surrounding mountains, was ONLY IF they were on a predesignated route, KNOWN to remain clear of the mountains. Which they believed, since it was a flight path regularly flown in their minds, NOT knowing it had just been changed without their knowledge. They put their faith in the navigation equipment, as they should, NOT knowing vital coordinates had been altered which led them directly into an obscured mountain. They never even saw what they hit. The "pull up" warning only provided a fews seconds of shock as to what could be wrong, and they immediately pulled up and added power. But this wasn't enough warning to be helpful. A tragic loss of life, ALL due to pencil pushers bureaucracy.
I've flown over the crash site in a helo, it may be near McMurdo but its still a harsh and remote place. I've skied the foothills of Erebus but an ex-boss of mine went to the top. I've always wanted to go up Mt. Terror but had to settle for Castle Rock before climbing it was banned. I went up without ropes, now you need fully climbing kit and training to go up there. Peter Mulgrew was on board, ex Old Firm collegue of Sir Ed Hillary. RIP.
he could have re worded it. as realistic and unpleasant as it is, we dont' need to know all the details. Tianamen sq was a nightmare. china needs boycotting.
In 1999 the Minister of Transport, Maurice Williamson, who worked at Air New Zealand as a corporate planner at the time of the crash, tabled the Mahon report in Parliament.
AS an 18 year old in NZ I vividly remember the long countdown as projected fuel exhaustion expired. Ive been cynical of such countdowns ever since. I followed the inquiries and the aftermath and have since read much - you have summed up the whole disaster very well.
History has shown that both the police officers and Peter Mahon were true heroes. The truth always comes out, eventually. Rip to all the souls of this horrific incident.
I had a friend on board, his wife bought tickets for his birthday. And I have a copy of the Mahon report.... there are too many un-answered questions in it. Did some passengers in the tail section survive the impact, but died of cold after? There never was a rescue although McMurdo base offered assistance, just recovery (by police rather than professional rescue services) several days later. McMahon reports that a fire was started 'some time after' the crash, while medical sources in Christchurch say some bodies were found wearing extra clothing. There was a huge cover-up and some lies are still to be investigated.
Excellent work. It's great to see a flight channel that actually maintains its integrity, particularly after what's happened to that other "Flight Channel"
A school janitor from North Vancouver, BC in Canada was on this plane. His adult children had given him this trip as part of a visit to New Zealand as a retirement present.
I love your commentary and voice. Exceptional coverage on older tragedies that have made an impact though our history. It's like a history lesson on steroids!
Us Aussies were much closer to our Kiwi cousins back then. I remember vividl the shock this then 26 yo Aussie felt at the crash. The following coverup was even worse. We weren't used to that sort of malfeasance, although we would be later.
I knew 2 people on the flight and my Mother knew someone also. The whole of Auckland was quite somber for a few weeks as most people seemed to know someone on the flight. 3 of 4 apartments in a small block were empty as 1 resident persuaded 2 of their neighbours to go on the flight. It’s was an early lesson to me that corruption is woven into all institutions. The NZ Govt was a major shareholder in Air NZ, so it had a vested interest in shifting the blame so as to not damage the revenue of the airline. It is illuminating to see how the courts will use a minor technicality to side with their masters. As the last few years have shown there aren’t many brave people in the world today.
I was working for the NZ Police in the months after this tragedy. We were asked to attend a filming of the post-mortems of the bodies as training for a similar event. I had to leave the screening after 3 minutes. Those officers who spent a week in those dreadful conditions have my greatest respect.
Great video, remember this accident so well. I met an ATC controller, who was actually on duty at the time of this crash, he told me that they knew something had happened to the DC10 just several hours after its last communication with ATC.
Horrendously sad.....most New Zealanders knew someone on there or affected. Air New Zealand has never fully recovered its reputation locally imo. Pilots were victims just like the passengers. May they all rest in peace. This was a really well done video. Thank you
I think to be fair Air NZ's reputation has recovered. They are known for a strong safety culture and are a very safe and reputable airline. But every time anything re safety at Air NZ is in the media, Erebus is usually mentioned. They have not forgotten - and will not be allowed to forget - Erebus
That's fair, certainly known for safety, and a good worldwide reputation. But locally, they won't and shouldn't be allowed to forget. The apology many years later was overdue, but I would say appreciated
Did Air New Zealand apologise? I don't think so. Jacinda apologised because she loves the lime light and emoting in front of a crowd. She is trained I'm manipulation.
For me, it's the very last photo taken of a passenger window with what appears to be hydraulic fluid sprayed across the window at the moment of impact that haunts me. I remember this well as I wanted to go on one with QANTAS. The remains of the Dc 10 are still visible sometimes. I never got to go.
I think that is a nice way of saying something, rather than saying this is blood at the moment of the crash, many would complain it was too gory, therefore it must be hydraulic fluid.
I had the honour and good fortune to become aquainted with Gordon Vette. In fact he invited me to stay a few days at, as he dryly called it, his 'shack' - then a lovely home with views over Lake Taupo. We had several discussions about the Erebus disaster. Many people don't realise that Capt. Vette was Air NZ's senior check & training captain with formidable qualifications and experience. His input into the Mahon Enquiry would alter the entire direction of investigations up to that time. Ultimately he was forced by political pressure to quit Air NZ, with 10 years left to run as their top paid company pilot. I commend his book, "Impact Erebus". You could not hope to meet a more modest, likeable and unassuming man. Now sadly gone... fair winds and clear skies, Captain. RIP.
@@elizabethroberts6215 Vette's book is a masterpiece, even if, as I feel, he went overboard. (Example, he leaves out the controversy of relying too much on AINS for a visual descent when you can't yet establish a visual fix.)
@@cchris874 ……his description of HOW the passengers’ died, was a brilliant piece of medicoing, imho. Otherwise we wouldn’t have known. Reminds me of HOW the Titan submersible folk did likewise………R I P all Souls’ on board both………
Because the bodies were frozen to the landscape it took immense effort to extract them. They arrived at Whenuapai Airbase and were loaded onto trucks to be taken to the Waikumete Cemetery. The unrefrigerated trucks left a trail of liquid along some of the route which left some of the personal involved traumatized. Fellow union members at the time.
The cross at the end is on Observation Hill near McMurdo Station. It was erected in 1913 to memorialize the men lost in the Scott expedition. It has nothing to do with the the Erebus crash.
The part of this documentary that I find most haunting is how the flight was delayed because a female passenger requested to disembark from the aircraft (as mentioned at 4.03 of the video) but was reassured that there was nothing to worry about, and remained on the aircraft , she obviously had a premonition, imagine if she had have disembarked like she requested , she would be alive today.. instinct is a very powerful thing.
I showed this video to my husband, he is a professional pilot “and a damn good one at that”. Hubs has flown over Antarctica before and he said that when they lost visual he would apply maximum power and pull up to 23-29 degrees. Maximum safe upwards attitude as gaining altitude would be paramount to regaining safe flying. Especially considering that the aircraft would be light holding not many passengers and luggage so the aircraft should have no issues quickly gaining altitude. I don’t know much about flying but I have no doubt that hubs knows what he’s talking about. Better to not get good photos but to get home safe and sound. Hubs was a fighter pilot in the navy and currently flies a 747 cargo aircraft for a very large shipping company. He knows large aircraft very well and he has been emphatic that flying that low in low to no visibility is far to dangerous for a sight seeing trip. Especially in such a remote and not well documented area. If anyone is interested or has questions I’ll relay them to him and answer anything I can. Rest in peace to all involved and I feel bad for the captain as he undoubtedly felt pressure to fly so low to please the passengers but as hubs has told me many times “people are dumb and you have to say no sometimes. It’s your aircraft and your responsibility, so don’t worry about what they think. They will get over it, and you’ll give them the ability to get over it by getting them home alive.
@@kevinbarry71 yes and that will always be a problem. Hubs has always said it’s better to air on the side of safety even to being lame and boring. Also listening to your crew is very important. There is no shame in getting second or third opinions.
My father is a career 747 and md11 pilot, and my grandfather a former skyhawk and Pan am captain. They both have flown everywhere except Antarctica, but my father has a lit of flight hours working in south America and the Andes. He always said when in doubt use help and instruments. If you have the ability to get radar guided assistance, especially in unfamiliar areas, you take it (except for a very few select cases, and those are usually high altitude or mountainous tajeoff/landing). The fact they never asked to verify with mcmurdo there location as a formality never made sense. Also, why did they put a pilot with no experience in the area with a crew with no experience. That just screams mis management, and even if they were supposed to fly of erebus, why would you. It is way more risky for less of a views, especially of the weather forecast wasn't supposed to be severe clear. The dc 10 is also a very powerful aircraft , so it's not like it couldnt perform any of the maneuvers without risking the crew. I think it's just a mess ed up situation.
I agree with your husband 😊. Whilst Air NZ’s attempt at a cover up was disgraceful, at the end of the day, the safety of any flight rests with the Captain. It’s precisely this that makes flying so safe. No matter what mistakes have been made, to fly beneath the minimum safe altitude for the area without visual cues is dangerous flying. Plus the passengers wouldn’t see a thing, so it was also pointless. There have been crashes in the Himalayas where pilots thought they were clear of the mountains due to waypoint errors, and these were deemed pilot error. I’m hoping the EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) is better than the previous GPWS, as it didn’t give any pilot who lost situational awareness much chance of avoiding the terrain!
Like others, I remember this well, thank you fot putting together a comprehensive narrative. My thoughts remain with all those lost, their families, and the recovery crews. RIP xx
I am a New Zealander and I still clearly remember this crash. It seems that every single person knew somebody who was on the doomed plane. It was very sad and awful as the whole country mourned this tragic incident. Having read pretty much everything I could on the accident, plus having discussed it with several people (including a pilot) who was part of the staff of Air NZ at the time, I am of the firm opinion that Mahon's report and findings are correct. The Inspector of Air Accidents, Ron Chippendale, was a dishonest man who had no problem with changing evidence and even things discussed in the cockpit to fit his own wrong conclusion.
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I was 9 years old and my teacher was on this flight. She was so excited about this trip and we were looking forward to hearing her stories. She was a wonderful lady and teacher. It's all still very heartbreaking 45 years later.
Was she the young lady pictured in the brief onboard film footage?
I paused it as many times as I could looking for her but I don't think it was.
Randomly my sister was looking for photos of herself as a youngster recently and one of the first photos we came across amongst many large envelopes in a whole suitcase full of photos was my class photo of that year.
Perhaps there's some kind of situational bias but I have always felt that she was the most kind and patient teacher I ever had.
Rest in peace Ms Nicholson ❤️
@@yoda68zac11 Good sentiment. It reminds me of that song about JFK/RFK/MLK "The good they die young"
Ain't that the truth. Seems evil far outnumbers good these days, at least in positions of power. ✌️
Two of my High School teachers also died on that plane together with their wives. The two of them were close friends and often set tasks and then chatted in the hallway together. Very very sad.
I've always found the photos taken onboard to be especially haunting. Also, what horrid luck for the woman who wanted to bail but then let herself be talked into reboarding.
The actual video footage was so haunting wasn’t it? I also thought what must have gone through that lady’s mind 😔
Always listen to your intuition.
Watch 'Final Destination', she would have died anyway.
@@edwinov That was a fictional movie. Show some respect to the real people who perished, including that poor woman, who might well have lived a full (though laced with survivor guilt) had she not re-boarded.
@@edwinovExactly what I was thinking!
That phrase, “an orchestrated litany of lies” is seared into the minds of most New Zealanders.
Reminds me on multiple levels of "Mission Accomplished" as an American.
Oh yeah man it was shot down
@@ACME_Kinetics i have, but you don't want to know. Or you will deny
@@mrpappageorgio8311 was it?
Where did you get that info from?
Wonder if the families were paid a million each for those 257 deaths,cuz of the deceitful actions of Air New Zealand?
I'm from NZ and i can confirm the phrase "an orchestrated litany of lies" was common knowledge for many years, and still is among people of a certain age.
I was a toddler when the disaster happened but I can remember it being a topic of conversation for my parents after i was 10. It had a massive impact on this country for sure.
I think another commentator said of this that while it was indeed a litany of lies, probably not orchestrated.
I think historical research into the NZ govt covid response will be found there was an orchestrated litany of lies spoken there too especially around the idea that by mandating the vaccine transmission would not happen in workplaces.
I seems as if you took it to heart when relating facts about those recent volcano veiwing charters.
That poor clean up crew. I don't know if a lot of people realize that "bodies" in an airplane crash are almost never whole bodies. It's picking up limbs, torsos and bits and pieces. I can't imagine how traumatic that must be.
It was done because of the many Japanese passengers, it's important in their culture to have a body to bury, I hope the hard work of our rescuers was appreciated in Japan.
There is a documentary specifically about the recovery. It's well worth watching.
@@Littleowl85352 it was forgotten about in Japan a month after
Nobody cares
@@vladimirputinforUSA who in the world would forget the death of their loved one after a month, stop with the embarrassing RUclips trolling please
@@vladimirputinforUSA - Nobody cares even for just a minute about an Internet troll who passed away!
As a 16 year old in 1977 I won an essay competition, the prize for which was a scenic flight for two to Antarctica. I took my mum and we had a thoroughly amazing time. We were seated in first class, directly behind the McDonnell-Douglas CEO. Many passengers were drunk by the time we got to Antarctica. Capt Vette was the pilot and Peter Mulgrew the expert commentator. And yes, we descended through 1500 feet over McMurdo Sound.
Two years later we sat glued to radio and TV that horrible evening as it became clear what had happened, and couldn't help imagining that it was us.
My mother went to school with Peter Mulgrew and knew him well, she was devastated when she heard the news.
Which school did you go to ? My hutt valley high form 5 classmate’s granparents were lost on this flight
Gordon Vette was probably the best Air NZ Dc10 pilot, helped locate a lost ferry pilot over the Tasman. These were days before GPS.
I worked with an real cool engineer in the 90s who had a ticket for this flight, but had to cancel due to work requirements. He was going to try rebook for the next chance to go. With his link to this disaster, he may watch this. If you read this, yes I'm talking about you, J.T.!!
1979 a bad bad yr.Flight 191 DC-10 crashed in Chicago 6 mos
before.......
This brings back some traumatic personal memories. One of the passengers killed was Earl Beaumont whom I knew very well. He was the head Janitor at my Elementary School in North Vancouver, BC, Canada then moved to my High School, Handsworth, when I did. He was liked by everyone and it was common for me to pop into his furnace room and chat with him. We'd even help him when we could and he'd taught me how to mop a floor properly. Later I played with his son Gary who was ten years older, in the 15th Field Regiment Band. The odd thing was I never connected Gary with his father until later. In June 1979 Earl Retired and the school gave him a huge sendoff because everyone loved him. They bought him a trip around the world and it was my sister, Jane, at Mercury Travel who handled all the bookings and tickets. The newspapers reported the story and he was interviewed by a TV Station expressing how happy and excited he was. I had moved to Calgary by then but on Nov 29th was resting back at home after a bad workplace accident. Jane phoned me that morning in tears telling me what she knew before any of the news outlets reported on the story. It was a big news story in Vancouver, especially in North Van where many people were visibly shaken. On Dec 8th, a cold Saturday afternoon, St Andrew's Church was so overflowing with mourners they opened the front doors so people outside could hear. I sat with Jane not far from Gary, who was just 33, and the rest of Earl's family. That was when I realized Earl was Gary's father. He was also very humble and quiet so had never mentioned his father but now the whole town knew. Gary said that seeing the hundreds of grieving people made him realize what a great man his father had been and brought him some peace.
Thank you for sharing your story. I am very sorry for your loss.
😭😭😭
Steve (I hope I got it right), I get the feeling that you are an awesome person. I hope your life was blessed by this man you mentioned and that God TRULY has blessed you.
Hope I get to meet you some day.
The story of the rescue workers at this crash site is something that always renews my faith in humanity. What utterly extraordinary people
I know a man who went..he was our local policeman back then.
My sister worked with one of them and his normal work was rather unusual. Employee at the Civic Theatre part time and also the elephant keeper at Auckland Zoo. I think he volunteered to go to the crash site.
What a classy comment, David. Kind of renews MY faith in humanity, despite the ugliness surrounding parts of the investigations.
What a hideous job those people had, but they persevered through the ghastly conditions. What a shame that other people were obviously working against them. Cheers, David.
Most New Zealanders who were alive at the time still consider this incident to be involuntary manslaughter on the part of Air New Zealand and emotions still run high regarding the event. To this day there are some very hard feelings and its only that those who lied and hoodwinked are all dead that we don't outright call that airline murderers.
While I can't speak for every Tasmanian, the connection between Tasmania and Antarctica is very strong. Being an island also "off the coast of Australia", we also feel (from time to time) a kinship with "Our East Islands"😘. Personally, at the time, I deeply felt this. And many family and friends mentioned that it was akin to the true (if not problematic) spirit of ANZAC. No Tasmanian that I know with an interest in Antarctica has ever forgotten the coverup.
It sounds to me like criminal negligence.
I call it as I see it......murder. I only fly Air NZ when I have no choice at all.
No we don't all the same thing. There are a large range of opinions.
@@PeteChatteris Yours is the minority. Accept it and fuck off.
I flew once with Captain Collins - also Gordon Vette was a good friend of my family, and a very great man who worked tirelessly to clear Collins name. I remember Vette saying that Collins was a fantastic pilot and would never have done anything that any other pilot in Air New Zealand wouldn't have done. Corporations will always sacrifice individuals unfortunately, but the level of conspiracy here with evidence from the scene going missing and robbery of of two crew's houses is still even today extremely concerning.
@@patrickpaganini
Fantastic pilot or not, without high resolution synthetic aperture ground mapping radar and a moving map display, which ALL airliners MUST HAVE, he had no idea he was going to slam into a 13,000 foot volcano.
Common sense will tell anyone it is suicidal flying at 10,000 feet, into an uncertain, uneven, mountainous, huge glacier where you have never been before - with nothing but a radio beacon, compass, preset waypoints and a useless weather radar to guide you.
Add in terrain-following radar, automated down to 200 feet, and you won't ever hear of ground collisions again.
I am shocked in this day and age that an airliner costing a few hundred million dollars does not have ground mapping radar.
@@ThamMalaysia Every airliner I’ve ever flown has had the ability to map ground with it’s radar, but I’ve never found it useful because we know where terrain is and we know where we are. We have multiple IRUs, DMEs and GPSs feeding information into our FMS, so it’s easy to avoid terrain on a bad day where you can’t see anything.
Where it gets problematic is on a “somewhat good day” like VFR at night with terrain. One might be tempted to be lax with all that navigation equipment when cleared for a visual approach but prudence demands that we backup ourselves.
These poor souls had some kind of FMS, probably getting info from one VORDME, and then the waypoints programmed into the database. If the names of the waypoints were the same but the lat/longs changed without the crew’s knowledge, it’s really a bad setup.
If they had radar that could show water as black and snow as a return, it might have let them know something was wrong, but that’s a lot of ifs.
A very strange and sad story.
They weren't 'robbed"
17:07 sounds like they were burgled.
@@AnthonyGallon Well gee,big breakthrough, inspector. Where were you when the investigstion was going on?
Thank you for telling that story. The men who were tasked with staying out there and conducting body parts recovery are absolute heroes and should be recognized.
Charred human grease is something that none of us would ever want to deal with, much less have to handle as much as they did. A real example of old souls doing their level best for the families of the lost.
Grease wasn't the half of it
The fires melted the snow, maimed corpses sank into the slush and were then frozen into blocks of a metre deep ice that had to be pickaxed open for recovery.
Horror movie stuff
The Chippendale report is the most unbelievable thing that I have read. The flight was doomed because they were sent directly towards a 14,,000 foot mountain. Any altitude below this meant certain death. The report brushes over this fact as if it doesn't exist.
I concur. So much fuss was made of their decision to descend, but the US base okayed it that day and Air NZs advertising specifically emphasised low level flights and Qantas also participated in those too. If they'd been higher unfortunately they still would have hit Erebus and it would have made retrieval of bodies, and evidence so much more difficult...
Wonder if there was someone on that flight the nz govt wanted disappeared?
Nope. "Fuss was made over their decision to descend" because it is *altitude* which keeps aircraft safe. That is why the minimum safe altitude for the region was 16000 ft with 6000 ft permitted once Erebus had been passed. The navigation system is not purposed for terrain avoidance; they were using it as such in a way it was never intended. High altitude flight plans change all the time.
In aviation circles Ron Chippendale remained highly respected until his death.
@@DrGerard66 maybe you should watch the video from the 15m mark.
I grew up 5 k's from RC and you comments are contrary to reality
@kevjoseph1032 Thanks for the tip, but having studied every credible publication on this distaster since 1979 as well as being a pilot, I doubt your suggestion is going to add terribly much.
Doubtless, "the pilots were blameless" mantra has the public zeitgeist. But it's quite wrong. Collins made some crucial errors of judgment and displayed poor situational awareness.
I did the Qantas Antarctic sightseeing flight out of Sydney a couple of years ago. It was an absolutely fantastic experience. We had incredibly clear weather. The planes fly at higher altitudes now, of course, but even so the views were magnificent. The atmosphere in the cabin was very vibrant and convivial as we all moved around from window to window. Yet, at the first mention and views of Mt Erebus a sad and respectful silence fell across all the passengers. Even after 40 years it was very moving.
I've done one of those flights too and it was brilliant. We didn't go over Mt Erebus but in doing the flight, it was how I found out about this accident. You're right about the atmosphere on board, it was amazing.
Do flat Earthers know about these flights?🤨
I have no idea.
@@DavidBritton-nl1wv I think so. They certainly know about the cruises you can do there and they dismiss them as "only going to where the government allows." As usual, anything that disproves their nonsense, they just dismiss as fake.
@@mp4986 Yes they know flights dont go over the center and never will
I was 4 yrs old at the time and remember it well. This was NOT a case of pilot negligence, nor recklessness! The powers that be decided to alter the navigational course that the flight would take on the fateful day... and omitted to inform the flight crew! The course alteration was also miss-entered which saw the flight take a direct course straight into Mt Erebus. The flight crew basically flew directly into a mountain that they both couldn't see (due to "white-out" conditions) nor were expecting to see. It shouldn't have been there.
Lol. 4 years old and remember it well. Ok, young Sheldon.
@@barneyboy2008 Pfffft... what a total Muppet.
But why ?
@@barneyboy2008exactly. And the 2948585959696 incoming “I knew someone on that flight” posts. On every one of these vids.
I remember one image from when I was four..
A boy from my school was one of the victims and there is another victim buried in one of the Napier cemeteries. I remember listening to the radio that night and the flight being overdue. The next morning, finding it had crashed. We don't forget.
@@seanodwyer4322Bro wtf was that?
Gotta love when the corrupt industry is the one investigating its own corruption.
Crazy how they always turn out to be innocent...
the aviation works the same as the medical field the nurses and the doctors can never do anything wrong ever! just ask them.
@@alanskinner7031_there were complications_ = I accidentally killed your loved one
@@alanskinner7031 That is total BS. Can't speak about the 70's but these days those investigations are thorough
It seems judges are politicised, same as police forces..both state departments are supposed to be impartial yet seemingly do the bidding of governments.
@@alanskinner7031 Unless you're in the USA. Then it's the insurance companies that don't ever do anything wrong. It's always the patient's fault. And if not the patient, then the doctors and nurses.
The younger brother of a friend of mine was on the flight, happened 45 years ago and I still think of him and the life not lived.
The Lord grant you and your family peace and rest...
Victim Support- Sean O'Dwyer- number 136- 140 Hobson Street.- Auckland City. 1010.- New Zealand.
Victim Support.- Sean O'Dwyer- 136- 140 Hobson Street.- Auckland City. 1010.- new Zealand.- South Pacific.'
Have you ever masturbated thinking about him?
I'm a New Zealander and while studying for my anthropology degree I was granted access to the all the documents and photographs from the Erebus disaster, including all the photos taken at the crash site. I won't describe what I saw in those photographs, but those images are burned in my brain until I die or develop dementia, whichever comes first.
While it may not assist your memory, I deeply thank you for research on this.
Thankfully those images you saw seem unavailable on the internet. The photos I found of Operation Overdue show many of the green flags in the snow, but nothing else. For that i am grateful, as inevitably making videos like mine you do come across some truly horrible images...
at least they would be frozen and not rotten or smelly.. The NZ Antarctic operation is known as "Deepfreeze"
@@theravenseye9443 Human grease pretty much tells the story. I agree that the environment would have mitigated the smell, and thankfully we don't have scratch-n-sniff technology yet.
My father in law was one of the NZ police that went to Antarctica tasked with recovering the bodies, he said whenever he smelled jet fuel or Kerosene it took him straight back to Erebus.
Was at high school when this occurred the whole country was shocked even more so when it was discovered flight coordinates had been changed and covered up after and the famous quote used to describe it "An orchestrated litany of lies!" Auckland New Zealand 2024
I to was at high school when this disaster happened. My parents knew Justice Mahon well and considered him to be a man of the utmost integrity and honesty and did I. He said what needed to be said & I firmly believe it to be correct. Air New Zealand has over the years had many achievements, not all of them can be considered great, this includes a government bail-out (or two). Personally I have found some of their CEO's to be rather ruthless and unfortunately one of them is now our Prime Minister (You can't run a country like a company Mr Luxon). Political expediency is often the name of the game and this is very sad.
😊😊😊@@stevengibbins8350
@@ThamMalaysia They still use waypoints as navigation today
@@mvd4436
Yes, those are keyed into the navigation computer, linked to the autopilot.
The computer simply flies you to the next waypoint, just a coordinate.
The computer does not know what that waypoint is.
If that coordinate is a mountain, it will also fly you there.
Sir is back once again with yet another exceptional piece of work. Many thanks.
Just imagine how hard it would be to work in those conditions. Mentally and physically exhausting.
They had to chase off birds who tried to eat the bits of the bodies who they tried to recover.
There’s a doco on RUclips that has testimony from those involved.
@@paulorocky Thank you, I will look that up, sounds interesting.
And you would never be able to forget what you saw.
There was serious PTSD in the team afterwards and their lives were shattered.
I am a polar meteorologist who specifically studies the topographical influence of winds, especially in the Ross Island and other coastal regions. Flying that low even during clear air days is already insane to me due to the potential of mountain wave induced turbulence. That entire area has some of the most intensely focused forecasting techniques to ensure nothing like this happens ever again. I hope all of the victims are resting in peace.
doesn't help when Air NZ goes and changes the flight plan on the 11th hour and doesnt tell the crew! OMG!
The Aussies still fly a sightseeing tour I think
An airliner - due to the aircraft makers scrimping on money - has no ground mapping radar, let alone terrain following radar,
All they give you is a lousy weather radar.
Poor navigation aids relying on a crude radio beacon and preset waypoints.
And yet these idiots flew so low into uncertain, hazardous territory, knowing there is a huge volcano almost half as high as Everest in that vicinity ?
Then you don't really understand the aerodynamics of a 200 tonne aircraft at 250 kts. The crew never expected to get within a few km of any high ground and even a 200 knot wind over the surface wouldn't be a danger to the aircraft, rotors might present serious turbulence for the passengers but the aircraft wouldn't be compromised.
@@nojwod
Nothing to do with flight dynamics.
That is beside the point.
Whether you expect it or not, you KNOW.
That it what a RADAR is for. It REVEALS what you CANNOT SEE forty miles in front of you.
Common sense tells you with the proper sensors, you have EYES.
With ground mapping and terrain-following radar, 300 people would be alive today.
Tell this to those stupid and stingy idiots at Boeing, Airbus, McDonnell Douglas.
Another wonderful video. Always been fascinated with this particular aviation disaster. Thank you for covering it the way you do.
I remember this, as a 15 year old. 😢
Love from across the Ditch. 🇦🇺
Same here my age 15 years old on the day 28th November 1979 Adelaide, South Australia. Flew TE Air New Zealand on the BIG 10...marketed at the time DC-10 with the airline many times. A beautiful aircraft was the DC-10, and a great airline TE was with service and staff on board. Never flew ZK-NZP. Did ZK-NZT new only a few weeks old at the time 1978 plus many others on the TE DC-10 fleet. ZK-NZS still now exists being preserved. My final flight on TE DC-10 was February 1981 LAX to SYD with cockpit visit beautiful memories. The BIG 10 was replaced with Boeing 747-219B by 1983 but flying on board TE B747 classic, new at time, was different. Still love the BIG 10. Miss the DC-8 as well!
A loss on TE 901 I feel a lot with it all and it had an impact with me too.
I know sadly.
Ansett 727.
I'm excited to see that this channel is so close to 100k subscribers! It is a hidden gem and has never had the level of subscription that I thought it should. Congratulations!!!
The coverup was almost as fucked as the crash itself. The fact that the coordinates were quietly changed seemingly in the dead of night without informing anyone reeks of an assassination attempt.
Cool Story mate.... assassination lol no. Just people (human error) being idiots with nav vs not informing the changes of said new nav points. Then coverup by corporate as they knew they'd F-up and tried to hide the fact.
Not that but it was cooperate asscovering after. They had the co-pilots house burgled. No money or valuables were taken. But all things relating to the work. Who would do that? There were documentaries about that. Air NZ and the government conspired to cover this up and blame the pilot. A royal commission was called. The term "orchestrated litany of lies " is well known in New Zealand still today
To believe that you'd have to believe the pilot was flying blind and had no idea where he was or where he was going or had any awareness of the flight plan... Which hardly absolves the pilot of responsibility either since those things are all the pilot's responsibility. The conspiracy theory makes zero sense.
@@Dilley_G45Aussie here
I've watched several of those docs. Agreed its relatively well know in this part of the world. For most Mahon's findings are regarded as the correct ones
The poster above is suggesting a theory based on nothing. It has no substance whatsoever
@@bubba99009 That there was a conspiracy between the government and the airline is fact. It's also fact that documents were stolen and that documents were destroyed.
Fascinating story expertly told and presented by one of the best channels on RUclips 👍
In the 80's as part of my training, I watched a film about the recovery of the bodies. The logistics involved were staggering.
I'll never forget the ariel film of literally HUNDREDS of body parts scattered for a mile in every directions. Endless red soaked spots in the virgin white snow marked each and every part of a lost soul.
It was a good idea to bury the bodies in the snow to prevent the birds from getting at them.
@@stephendacey8761 glad they had your blessing on it after you used your brain to figure out refrigeration works
Great vid. Well done.
Imagine that.....a corporation hiding and covering-up with 'friends' in the government helping them. I'm shocked.
Well not that shocked…
Very safe, totally effective
A recurring theme in this channel... And of course quite predictable...
It's a state owned corporation so of course government hide it, the government is the corporation in this case.
@@Littleowl85352 Corporations own all Western Capitalist Governments.
Hey there Raven, just noticed how close you are to the promised land of 100,000 subscribers, and wanted to say congratulations, you've worked hard for it and you've earned it, I remember joining at about 10 000 and saying your channel was about to blow up ! Looks like I was right. Well done, brother, well done indeed. 🙏 👏👏👏
Thank you so much!
My dad was a travel agent for Air NZ in Hamilton. I was 8 at the time and I remember this day like it was yesterday, everything, the teachers at school talking to us about it, because a couple of kids lost their parents in the crash, and the news reports, newspapers etc. A really dark time for New Zealand 😢 still haunts me.
Victim Support- Sean O'Dwyer.- 136- 140 Hobson Street.- Auckland 1010.- New Zealand.
we all lost someone we loved, as NZ is such a small country population wise. Yes it still haunts me too.
I was deployed to McMurdo US Base on Ross Island at the base of Mount Erebus in 1984, 1985 and 1986. I was a Navy helicopter crew chief flying in UH-1 N as seen at 11:42. I flew in that number 11 helo during my time in McMurdo and back at VXE-6 Squadron Point Mugu, California Naval Air Station. We had six helicopters for missions. Our max ceiling was 15K above sea level. We could see the wreckage every flight overs Erebus. I set foot on top of Erebus with a walk around Oxygen bottle and video camera in 1985. We would do air drops to the scientists on the side of Erebus. Due one of the helos crashing without fatalities, we were then limited to 10K operations, so no more trips to the crater rim at the top.
Awsome job flash.
VXE 6 did gr8 work down on the ice.
Those rescue crews were living in some kind of frozen hell.
I remember as a thirteen year old sitting at home with my family in Henderson, West Auckland watching the news bulletins on the tele. The last one I saw said that they would've been out of fuel and hopefully down on the ice ( safely) or ditched in the Southern Ocean.
Also, for many years in the NZ Herald on November 28th, the parents of a stewardess killed in the crash would put a poem in the "in memorium" section. The poem was about a lass named Katrina. RIP.
*telly. who spells it tele? That's going to sound like teller.
My father was a consultant to the airline (marketing) & it hit me hard as our family could have all been on that flight. Thank God for turning them down. I couldn't personally sleep for weeks. I was 19 at the time. Dad is about to turn 90 yrs old. Guess it wasn't our time!
I sat in my house listening, waiting for the news that the flight had landed, and felt a sudden crushing sadness when the news came out that there was no chance the flight was still airborne. Morrie Davis was a crook. It was he who orchestrated the house theft of Jim's atlas maps where he had drawn the flight plan and discussed it with his Wife, the intentional shredding of files, including the changes to the flight computer. Having been in LandSAR, I know a couple of Policemen who were there, and they still talk about what they saw and did ( but mostly to others who were there ). One who found the ( Jim's ) flight log book, said it he was directed to immediately hand it over, but also said it was all complete when he did so. There is overwhelming, consistent, meticulous evidence that the Mahon report is correct.
Of course it was. Mahon was an honourable man.
Well researched and presented, thanks. I was 12 years old, living in Christchurch NZ and my father had spent nine seasons in Antarctica. So we had a close interest in the event. It was a warm November evening when the news was announced. Total disbelief and confusion seemed to be the lasting memory. Poor passengers and rescue staff. A tough piece of our history.
RIP
To the passengers and crew of Air New Zealand Flight 901
there is something special about you and your presentation of content..always very interesting and rare incidents..have been a loyal subscriber since the day i watched a video of yours..and to that i say you deserve many more subscribers and views..you will continue to grow..thx again..
Thanks very much - appreciate it!
Sir Edmund Hillary apparently was scheduled to be the Antarctic guide that day, but was called away by some other matter. Another great video.
Yes - he was replaced by Peter Mulgrew.
@@theravenseye9443……and I believe Hillary ended up marrying Mulgrew’s wife.
@@SuperEdge67 yes he did. June is an amazing woman. Ed's first wife was also killed in a plane crash.
@@adrafts7944 ''Truth is stranger than fiction judgy wudgy''.. Curly Howard ;Disorder in the court, 1936
@@tonyc223Ain't that the truth sometimes.
Still no compensation for all the lives lost. Shame on Air New Zealand.
Money doesn't reanimate the dead
I'll never forget listening to the news with my Dad when the crash occurred, and then the final report - a litany of lies - I'll never forget this. Companies will always only consider themselves, there is zero accountability and blame avoidance.
My father was working down in Antarctica at the time and was involved in the search for what ended up being human remains. He said the stench of aviation fuel was so bad, and still reminds him to this day of that crash
I live in New Zealand, Christchurch in fact., TE901 departed from Auckland.,i was working at a supermarket packing shelfs when over the intercom radio. They said that this flight was now overdue to arrive back at Auckland International Airport, never will forget that day!.
November 28 is a dark day for aviation, not only for Air New Zealand Flight 901 but also for South African Airways Flight 295 eight years later. 😢💔
It seems Brian, that after the Antarctic sight-seeing portion of the flight, you're not aware that the aircraft was supposed to have first landed back in Christchurch and then refueled with a crew change and then onwards to Auckland around 45 minutes after landing in Christchurch?
Love the channel and so happy I found it. Finally, well researched, rich content that organized and narrated clearly and proficiently. Thank you for caring more about quality than monetary gain.
Worked for Air NZ in the early 1970s. Would believe Mahon's report above anything that came out of Air NZ.
It would be one thing if the airline admitted they had made an (honest) mistake and paid compensation to the victims. Everyone knows, when they get on an airplane, that accidents happen. No matter how rare it is, we are all rolling the dice when we fly, assuming the benefits to be greater than the risk. It's an entirely different kettle of fish when the airline knows they made a mistake and does everything they can to shirk responsibility. There are reasons I would never fly on Russian or Chinese airlines. It makes me want to think of not flying with New Zealand air and no, that's nothing against new Zealand or New Zealanders themselves.
@@trevorstolz8580 The issue is that compensation was limited by the Warsaw Convention to (IIRC) $75,000 per person, but if the airline admitted fault, it would be open to lawsuits in American courts, and that could run to billions of dollars. The government, cash-strapped in those days, could not allow that to happen. I presume that all on board were covered by New Zealand's Accident Compensation scheme (ACC), although the accident happened outside New Zealand. I grew up thinking NZ was a country of exceptional honesty and probity, but this episode involving corruption and cover-up was a loss of innocence. Of course, today New Zealand is much wealthier (though much less egalitarian), and the airline has been partially privatised.
And there's still dodgy shit coming out of Air NZ
I wanted to find out who the people in the video were, to put a name to the faces, but there doesn't seem to be much. I did find out the gentleman at 5:36 moving from left to right and sitting down, is Frank Christmas, the girl at 5:38 is Melinda Arnold, who'd just turned 17 and was one of the youngest on the flight, and there's a cabin crew gentleman holding glasses and I think a bottle at 5:40 who may be Michael Finlay but it's so fleeting. I did find a roll of remembrance which has photos of all the crew, but the passenger photos are minimal. Does anyone know about any other sites??
There are some very good documentaries about Overdue as well, I watched one a while ago concentrating on the police workers and how unappreciated their work was until recently. They were just supposed to slot back into their normal jobs, with no support for any distress or damage over what they'd experienced.
That is a great doco.
I saw my uncle in a photo..
As a former Air NZ Engineer who was at work at Mangere on the day of the crash I will never forget the sadness that consumed us all on hearing the aircraft was overdue.I will always believe there was a coverup of sorts that lead a competent and skilled crew flying unknowingly into Mt Erebus.Sadly whiteout conditions they encountered were the real contributor on the day of the crash .
I’m so curious to know more about the attitudes of non-executive employees of Air NZ at the time. What was the company culture like for you? What were the signs at the time that clued you into there being a cover up?
@mattthrun-nowicki8641 we were in shock and mourning like all New Zealanders, all the passenger's families and our colleagues families. We were and still are a tight knit bunch. Husband's, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, sons and daughters and just plain old friends. We lost so much. Our integrity our innocence. It was bad enough to mourn through the disaster, but to still live, and continue to work for an airline, our airline, my airline, was tough as motmre and more was revealed through the years of inquiries and hearings. We stayed loyal to ourselves, our colleagues our passengers and the koru. We did our best to rise above the stigma attached to orchestrated litany of lies, because we still had a job to do and we wanted to do that to the best of our ability. It was important to believe in ourselves if nothing else. Thank goodness for Gordon Vette, Peter Mahon who sought nothing but the truth! Because that's all we ever wanted was the truth.
Yes I remember it all too well (avionics engineer 76 to 82)
@rowanscott915 respectfully, the aircraft had been in contact with the US base McMurdo. To the best of my knowledge talking with other Flight Deck involved in the inquiry, McMurdo Base refused to hand over their transcriptions from that day. If the aircraft's voice recorder held only 30 minutes of these recordings before relooping, any communication with Mc Murdo was quite possibly looped over. Hence the request to McMurdo Base, to help fill in those gaps. Respectfully, Wendy x
@@wendycooper7060 there's a lot more to the disaster than people realise in my opinion. Whilst the nav was seriously flawed, the pilot did descend to a low altitude without being sure of the location. At the end of the day, it was a tragic, horrid, terrible moment in our country's history. Those of us who were at Air New Zealand at the time will never forget the hollow feeling. I know that you suffered greatly from the tragedy and I applaud you for your mature way of talking about this subject.
Cheers Pete
A friend of mine told me he was scheduled to be on board but had to cancel. He is a very lucky fellow.
I so feel for the lady who got off and then back on, as well as the ground crew who convinced her it was ok. What must they have felt?
A lot of those first responders had major ptsd for years
They were in no way trained or prepared for what they had to do. While it was in a sense in keeping with the rough and ready attitude of NZ at the time, the Police on the recovery mission suffered terribly
I was on air at Radio Avon, Christchurch NZ, doing the 7 'til midnight shift when journalist Brian Worthington stepped into the studio and said, "An Air New Zealand plane is missing over Antarctica." That moment is indelibly etched upon my soul. An enormous tragedy.
The fact that the lady knew what was coming beforehand but was shooed back onto the plane is absolutely chilling. If you get a feeling like that, ALWAYS, _ALWAYS,_ *_ALWAYS_* trust your gut.
I bet you believe in tarot cards as well.
@@kevMoon55 I believe in tarot cards in that I believe they physically exist, but I do not believe that they're anything other than cards.
I remember watching the TV news that night when I was 15, it was the first time I had ever seen a presenter (male) brought to tears.
This video brought back memories.
This is the best channel on youtube, you have heart, you do your research and are very compassionate and articulate. I love your documentaries, your spoken word is tactful, easy to understand and very respectful of the stories you tell. Thank you, don't ever change.❤
I appreciate your appreciation!
I hate the word with a passion, but this channel is truly underrated, the videos are always fascinating and you never expect the next topic he'll tackle!
You must be a communist too.
Some good did come out of the Erebus disaster namely better Terrain Avoidance and Warning Systems (TAWS). The issue is the early Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) as fitted to TE901 used a radio altimeter that looked straight down for measuring distance from terrain. By the time the GPWS warning sounded the jet was already over the lower mountain slopes and escape was impossible. I fly a small 4 seat aircraft and even this plane today has TAWS with a Forward Looking Terrain Avoidance (FLTA) function. If this happened today on a modern jet, the FLTA function will provide a timely warning giving the crew enough time to execute a successful terrain escape maneuver. The Erebus disaster certainly was cited for the push for better TAWS and it may provide some small measure of comfort for those who lost loved ones to know this.
Feels like a cover up classic. Poor people on the plane. then the poor people on the ground sweeping up the people parts. huge respect to the rescue crew and after all that i think id have a stiff drink, no pun intended. great reporting as allways sir also good luck on 100k
It was a cover up classic.
Complete with blame the dead guy.
Wow that side-by-side comparison photo of McMurdo & Ross Bays really made the whole case for me. The guys wouldn't ever have seen the terrain until they were planting their faces into it. Imagine their utter confusion in that last second.
At 5:37 is 17 year old Belinda Arnold. She was on the flight with her mother. It is so senseless and tragic that she was just moments away from death.
She was my brother's girlfriend. He still visits her grave when he returns to NZ.
It was Melinda age 17 and that was her older sister Valerie age 49 from a family of 10 children, the youngest and the oldest.
@@wendycooper7060 Oh, that is tragic. How he must feel when he sees this fleeting glimpse of her just before the terrible crash. Our lives hang on a thin thread which can be snapped at any time. We really don't know the minute .......
@@Joe-iv5ks Thank you for that information.
@@gary1961 you are so welcome xxx
In 2019, prime minister Jacinda Ardern apologised on behalf of the airline for failing in its duty for flight 901. That was, in my view, an admission of guilt from Air New Zealand. After 40 years of despair and anguish from the victim’s family. Better late than never… However, absolutely revolting cover up from the airline and the authorities at the time. RIP. [ EDITED: Most of the comments below are about Jacinda Ardern, and your dislike of her. The point being it was a coward admission of guilt from Air New Zealand about the crash. The messenger in that case is irrelevant. Let’s not forget it’s about flight 901 and its victims. Peace everyone]
Arden is a joke. Biggest clown ever in Kiwi politics. She sums up everything that is bad in today's awful society.
It was not Jacinda, she has yet to apologise for anything including stuffing the economy. It was Rob Fyfe.
one of the worst PM'S in history
If I was related to one of the victims the last thing I’d want is an apology from that disgusting virtue signaling narcissist. What an insult.
Very easy to apologize on behalf of someone else. Apology was far too late and from the wrong person.
The lady who wanted to leave the excursion should have listened to her gut. RIP all x
Met a English Gypsy lady on 300 Queen Street.- Auckland city, and pronto- She knew my mothers French Royal family had died violently in the French Revelution0 1779, - She ran upp Queen Street as her reading made her solid body shake violentlly , so perhaps these Gypsys can warn us about these Earth Shacking Events.- ????
Erebus - Into The Unknown is a very good drama-documentary of this. It's based on the recovery crew and their experiences both during the operation and witnessing the coverup. It's a tough watch in places, but gives a lot of insight into what these people went through in the aftermath.
At least for Kiwis my age, Mahon is remembered as something of a hero. Everyone blames corporate AirNZ bosses, and the cover up was worse than the originating crime (which was terrible in and of itself)
Yep, that's my memory too.... it was shocking for pilot Collins wife, and Mahons report would have vindicated her belief in her husband.
As a pilot if 40 years, there's no doubt as to the cause of the crash. One of the first things even a student pilot learns, is never fly into cloud not knowing exactly where you are, because there's probably a mountain hiding in it!
These pilots knew that rule! The ONLY reason they would continue flight in a white out condition BELOW the peaks if surrounding mountains, was ONLY IF they were on a predesignated route, KNOWN to remain clear of the mountains. Which they believed, since it was a flight path regularly flown in their minds, NOT knowing it had just been changed without their knowledge.
They put their faith in the navigation equipment, as they should, NOT knowing vital coordinates had been altered which led them directly into an obscured mountain.
They never even saw what they hit. The "pull up" warning only provided a fews seconds of shock as to what could be wrong, and they immediately pulled up and added power. But this wasn't enough warning to be helpful.
A tragic loss of life, ALL due to pencil pushers bureaucracy.
I've flown over the crash site in a helo, it may be near McMurdo but its still a harsh and remote place. I've skied the foothills of Erebus but an ex-boss of mine went to the top. I've always wanted to go up Mt. Terror but had to settle for Castle Rock before climbing it was banned. I went up without ropes, now you need fully climbing kit and training to go up there.
Peter Mulgrew was on board, ex Old Firm collegue of Sir Ed Hillary. RIP.
"Black human grease" is as awful a phrase as "human jam" used to describe the horror of Tianamen Square in June of 1989
Nothing compared to "logs" term used in Unit 731
he could have re worded it. as realistic and unpleasant as it is, we dont' need to know all the details. Tianamen sq was a nightmare. china needs boycotting.
I thought I knew all about this crash. Seems I was mislead. Thanks for helping us reach the truth. That commodity is in such short supply these days.
In 1999 the Minister of Transport, Maurice Williamson, who worked at Air New Zealand as a corporate planner at the time of the crash, tabled the Mahon report in Parliament.
AS an 18 year old in NZ I vividly remember the long countdown as projected fuel exhaustion expired. Ive been cynical of such countdowns ever since.
I followed the inquiries and the aftermath and have since read much - you have summed up the whole disaster very well.
History has shown that both the police officers and Peter Mahon were true heroes. The truth always comes out, eventually. Rip to all the souls of this horrific incident.
What an outstanding work you've done sir. Thank you.
Every Kiwi alive, myself included, was somehow connected to someone on that flight. A huge tragedy for our little country.
Nope I'm not
@@alexsetterington3142 Nor me.
I was connected with two of them. It's not something you ever forget.
I was thinking the same. Still remember it...
Nope.
The Antarctica memorial is touching 😢
I had a friend on board, his wife bought tickets for his birthday.
And I have a copy of the Mahon report.... there are too many un-answered questions in it.
Did some passengers in the tail section survive the impact, but died of cold after?
There never was a rescue although McMurdo base offered assistance, just recovery (by police rather than professional rescue services) several days later.
McMahon reports that a fire was started 'some time after' the crash, while medical sources in Christchurch say some bodies were found wearing extra clothing.
There was a huge cover-up and some lies are still to be investigated.
Excellent work. It's great to see a flight channel that actually maintains its integrity, particularly after what's happened to that other "Flight Channel"
What happened to the other flight channel?
A school janitor from North Vancouver, BC in Canada was on this plane. His adult children had given him this trip as part of a visit to New Zealand as a retirement present.
I love your commentary and voice. Exceptional coverage on older tragedies that have made an impact though our history. It's like a history lesson on steroids!
Us Aussies were much closer to our Kiwi cousins back then. I remember vividl the shock this then 26 yo Aussie felt at the crash. The following coverup was even worse. We weren't used to that sort of malfeasance, although we would be later.
We were much closer to each other, too.
There's no sense of community anymore.
@@Beensash thanks neoliberalism.
I just found your channel and I've been binge-watching everything. Really great stuff; thanks for the content.
I knew 2 people on the flight and my Mother knew someone also. The whole of Auckland was quite somber for a few weeks as most people seemed to know someone on the flight. 3 of 4 apartments in a small block were empty as 1 resident persuaded 2 of their neighbours to go on the flight. It’s was an early lesson to me that corruption is woven into all institutions. The NZ Govt was a major shareholder in Air NZ, so it had a vested interest in shifting the blame so as to not damage the revenue of the airline. It is illuminating to see how the courts will use a minor technicality to side with their masters. As the last few years have shown there aren’t many brave people in the world today.
Terrific documentary! Great editing, copy and narraration. Thanks so much for posting something that was NOT created via A.I.
I was working for the NZ Police in the months after this tragedy. We were asked to attend a filming of the post-mortems of the bodies as training for a similar event. I had to leave the screening after 3 minutes. Those officers who spent a week in those dreadful conditions have my greatest respect.
Great video, remember this accident so well. I met an ATC controller, who was actually on duty at the time of this crash, he told me that they knew something had happened to the DC10 just several hours after its last communication with ATC.
Horrendously sad.....most New Zealanders knew someone on there or affected. Air New Zealand has never fully recovered its reputation locally imo. Pilots were victims just like the passengers. May they all rest in peace.
This was a really well done video. Thank you
I think to be fair Air NZ's reputation has recovered. They are known for a strong safety culture and are a very safe and reputable airline.
But every time anything re safety at Air NZ is in the media, Erebus is usually mentioned.
They have not forgotten - and will not be allowed to forget - Erebus
That's fair, certainly known for safety, and a good worldwide reputation. But locally, they won't and shouldn't be allowed to forget.
The apology many years later was overdue, but I would say appreciated
Did Air New Zealand apologise? I don't think so. Jacinda apologised because she loves the lime light and emoting in front of a crowd. She is trained I'm manipulation.
@@joharrison3469righto lol
Yep, pretty much sums it up. Great video detailing a tragic disaster.
For me, it's the very last photo taken of a passenger window with what appears to be hydraulic fluid sprayed across the window at the moment of impact that haunts me. I remember this well as I wanted to go on one with QANTAS. The remains of the Dc 10 are still visible sometimes. I never got to go.
I think that is a nice way of saying something, rather than saying this is blood at the moment of the crash, many would complain it was too gory, therefore it must be hydraulic fluid.
Very good presentation. I remember this crash very well, I was working for BA at the time. RIP to everyone who perished.
I had the honour and good fortune to become aquainted with Gordon Vette. In fact he invited me to stay a few days at, as he dryly called it, his 'shack' - then a lovely home with views over Lake Taupo. We had several discussions about the Erebus disaster. Many people don't realise that Capt. Vette was Air NZ's senior check & training captain with formidable qualifications and experience. His input into the Mahon Enquiry would alter the entire direction of investigations up to that time. Ultimately he was forced by political pressure to quit Air NZ, with 10 years left to run as their top paid company pilot. I commend his book, "Impact Erebus". You could not hope to meet a more modest, likeable and unassuming man. Now sadly gone... fair winds and clear skies, Captain. RIP.
……his book, along with Justice Mahon’s are the best accounts’ of this preventable tragedy………
@@elizabethroberts6215
Vette's book is a masterpiece, even if, as I feel, he went overboard. (Example, he leaves out the controversy of relying too much on AINS for a visual descent when you can't yet establish a visual fix.)
@@cchris874 ……his description of HOW the passengers’ died, was a brilliant piece of medicoing, imho. Otherwise we wouldn’t have known. Reminds me of HOW the Titan submersible folk did likewise………R I P all Souls’ on board both………
@@elizabethroberts6215
"was a brilliant piece of medicoing". Yes, indeed.
Because the bodies were frozen to the landscape it took immense effort to extract them. They arrived at Whenuapai Airbase and were loaded onto trucks to be taken to the Waikumete Cemetery. The unrefrigerated trucks left a trail of liquid along some of the route which left some of the personal involved traumatized. Fellow union members at the time.
Wow, what a rad story. Thanks for bringing this up again for us to reflect.
The cross at the end is on Observation Hill near McMurdo Station. It was erected in 1913 to memorialize the men lost in the Scott expedition. It has nothing to do with the the Erebus crash.
Thank you. That was both informative and concise.
The part of this documentary that I find most haunting is how the flight was delayed because a female passenger requested to disembark from the aircraft (as mentioned at 4.03 of the video) but was reassured that there was nothing to worry about, and remained on the aircraft , she obviously had a premonition, imagine if she had have disembarked like she requested , she would be alive today.. instinct is a very powerful thing.
I’m so excited for you to hit 100K subs!
Thanks for your content from a big fan.
Thanks a lot - appreciate the good will.
Two of my husbands relatives died on this flight, his great grand uncle Alexander Francis Plummer & his daughter Hilda Frances Plummer. RIP
I showed this video to my husband, he is a professional pilot “and a damn good one at that”. Hubs has flown over Antarctica before and he said that when they lost visual he would apply maximum power and pull up to 23-29 degrees. Maximum safe upwards attitude as gaining altitude would be paramount to regaining safe flying. Especially considering that the aircraft would be light holding not many passengers and luggage so the aircraft should have no issues quickly gaining altitude. I don’t know much about flying but I have no doubt that hubs knows what he’s talking about. Better to not get good photos but to get home safe and sound. Hubs was a fighter pilot in the navy and currently flies a 747 cargo aircraft for a very large shipping company. He knows large aircraft very well and he has been emphatic that flying that low in low to no visibility is far to dangerous for a sight seeing trip. Especially in such a remote and not well documented area. If anyone is interested or has questions I’ll relay them to him and answer anything I can. Rest in peace to all involved and I feel bad for the captain as he undoubtedly felt pressure to fly so low to please the passengers but as hubs has told me many times “people are dumb and you have to say no sometimes. It’s your aircraft and your responsibility, so don’t worry about what they think. They will get over it, and you’ll give them the ability to get over it by getting them home alive.
The problem is the pilot didn't believe he had lost visual.
@@kevinbarry71oh come on! He was facing a whiteout - how could he NOT know he’d lost visual?
@@kevinbarry71 yes and that will always be a problem. Hubs has always said it’s better to air on the side of safety even to being lame and boring. Also listening to your crew is very important. There is no shame in getting second or third opinions.
My father is a career 747 and md11 pilot, and my grandfather a former skyhawk and Pan am captain. They both have flown everywhere except Antarctica, but my father has a lit of flight hours working in south America and the Andes. He always said when in doubt use help and instruments. If you have the ability to get radar guided assistance, especially in unfamiliar areas, you take it (except for a very few select cases, and those are usually high altitude or mountainous tajeoff/landing). The fact they never asked to verify with mcmurdo there location as a formality never made sense. Also, why did they put a pilot with no experience in the area with a crew with no experience. That just screams mis management, and even if they were supposed to fly of erebus, why would you. It is way more risky for less of a views, especially of the weather forecast wasn't supposed to be severe clear. The dc 10 is also a very powerful aircraft , so it's not like it couldnt perform any of the maneuvers without risking the crew. I think it's just a mess ed up situation.
I agree with your husband 😊. Whilst Air NZ’s attempt at a cover up was disgraceful, at the end of the day, the safety of any flight rests with the Captain. It’s precisely this that makes flying so safe. No matter what mistakes have been made, to fly beneath the minimum safe altitude for the area without visual cues is dangerous flying. Plus the passengers wouldn’t see a thing, so it was also pointless. There have been crashes in the Himalayas where pilots thought they were clear of the mountains due to waypoint errors, and these were deemed pilot error.
I’m hoping the EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system) is better than the previous GPWS, as it didn’t give any pilot who lost situational awareness much chance of avoiding the terrain!
Like others, I remember this well, thank you fot putting together a comprehensive narrative. My thoughts remain with all those lost, their families, and the recovery crews. RIP xx
I am a New Zealander and I still clearly remember this crash. It seems that every single person knew somebody who was on the doomed plane. It was very sad and awful as the whole country mourned this tragic incident. Having read pretty much everything I could on the accident, plus having discussed it with several people (including a pilot) who was part of the staff of Air NZ at the time, I am of the firm opinion that Mahon's report and findings are correct. The Inspector of Air Accidents, Ron Chippendale, was a dishonest man who had no problem with changing evidence and even things discussed in the cockpit to fit his own wrong conclusion.
Fascinating, well researched and produced report, thank you.