On 28 November 1979, a company McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 Air New Zealand took off from Auckland for a scenic flight to Antarctica. However, the flight, which was organized to allow tourists to fly over the Ross Barrier to the McMurdo Canal, never reached its destination. A mistake by the commander, not realizing the plane was flying the wrong route, caused New Zealand Flight 901 to crash into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. The tragedy known as the Mount Erebus disasteris considered the most serious accident to have happened to Antarctica and New Zealand civil aviation.
The flight and the accident
The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, owned by Air New Zealand Limited, with approximately 20,763 flight hours. Commander Jim Collins and co-pilot Greg Cassin had never flown this route before, but 19 days before departure they only took part in a short training session consisting of a film and a flight with a 45-minute simulator, in order to to prepare for the flight that awaited them and at harsh climatic conditions Antarctic. The two pilots were therefore unfamiliar with the route planned for November 28, as they had never flown to Antarctica.
On that November day, Air New Zealand Flight 901 took off at 7:17 p.m. local time with 237 passengers on board eager to board scenic drive on the fascinating continent of Antarctica. The crew consisted of a pilot, two first officers, two flight engineers and an announcer who explained the scenery to the passengers.
That company rules They stipulated a minimum approach altitude of 4,900 meters (16,000 ft), while a descent to 1,800 meters (6,000 ft) had to require a visibility of more than 20 kilometers without snow phenomena. However, that day, despite photos taken by passengers showing good visibility and weather conditions at high altitudes, it was snowing on the ground and visibility was limited.
Upon arrival near McMurdo, the Antarctic Station control tower told the pilots of Flight 901 to descend to 1,500 feet (460 meters) to be under control radar. The pilots ducked as instructed by air traffic controllers, but the plane never appeared on radar. In addition, there was some difficulty for the aircraft in contacting the McMurdo station control tower via HF radios.
The pilots began a visual descent north of theRoss Island, maneuvers allowed only in optimal weather conditions, making a spiral to the right and then to the left. At this point, the plane was flying at 5,700 feet (1,500 meters), but the GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System) warned the utterly disbelieving pilots of the imminent danger of a ground impact. The commander’s attempt to raise the nose of the aircraft was in vain, and shortly after New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Mount Erebus at an altitude of 1,467 feet (447 m). Unfortunately, there were no survivors after the violence of the impact.
The responsibilities of the accident and the recovery of the victims
The investigation to determine what caused the Air New Zealand DC-10 tragedy was assigned to the Traffic Accident Investigation Commission New Zealander who, thanks to the analysis of the black boxes, claims responsibility for the accident several factors.
One of the causes has been attributed to the captain’s decision to descend below safe altitude near Ross Island, an area considered vulnerable to adverse weather conditions. weather conditions, characterized by strong winds and heavy snowfalls. It was further noted that the pre-flight briefing the pilots attended did not provide them with adequate training to fly the designated route and that the GPWS warning came too late, just 6 seconds after the collision. Therefore, it was impossible for the pilots to raise the plane in such a short time and avoid the crash.
At 3 a.m. on November 28, the United States and New Zealand Air Forces began searching of the aircraft that has now been declared missing, but due to adverse weather conditions, the rescuers were only able to recover the wreckage of the aircraft the next morning. The surgery for the recognition with 237 passengers and 20 crew members ended on December 10 of the same year.