Verdict on Erebus
by Peter Mahon
Category: Aeronautics

"On 28 November 1979 a DC10 passenger jet airliner owned by Air New Zealand, carrying out a tourist flight from New Zealand to Antarctica and back, flew in broad daylight into the lower slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica. There were no survivors of the crash and 257 people lost their lives. The New Zealand Government appointed me to be a Royal Commissioner of Inquiry to investigate the disaster and to report to the Government my opinion to the cause ... The aircraft was navigated by the inertial navigation system which has for many years dispensed with the need for human navigators on commercial flights ... The INS on this DC10 was found to have been operating accurately during the flight, so the aircrew had always known where they were. But following the disaster there were many senior pilots in Air New Zealand who suspected that the standard flight track to Antarctica had not been the flight track which had been typed into the aircraft computer on the morning of the flight. They believed that the standard flight track had been changed without the knowledge of the crew. As things turned out the theory proved to be correct ..."--Peter Mahon, Foreword.