Air New Zealand, Flight 901, Mt. Erebus Disaster
Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE-901) was a scheduled Air New Zealand Antarctic sightseeing flight that operated between 1977 and 1979. On 28 November 1979, the fourteenth flight of TE-901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 registered ZK-NZP, collided with Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica.
The initial investigation concluded the accident was caused by pilot error but public outcry led to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash. After many long years into the investigation led by Peter Mahon, a final report was released in 1981. This reports chilling facts showed that in 1978, the Air New Zealand navigation division fed the Antarctic flight plan into ground computers with a mistake. After several flights, the error was finally identified and tragically corrected the night before the accident. In addition, no one told the flight crew about the navigation corrections.
Almost twenty years after the accident, the 1981 Royal Commission of Inquiry Report in to the flight TE901 was finally accepted and recognized as an official Mahon Report into the disaster. The Mahon Report was tabled in the NZ Parliament on August 25, 1999. The acceptance of the report vindicated the flight crew of the blame attributed to them twenty years earlier.
FOR COMPLETE DETAILS OF THIS STORY, VISIT http://www.erebus.co.nz/ The most comprehensive source of information on the 1979 Erebus disaster. It is dedicated to informing others about the plane accident that took the lives of 257 passengers and crew of Air NZ flight TE901. Please take time to browse through this site and learn about the events on 28 November, 1979
Below, you’ll find several videos including ‘First Pictures’ and initial news reports into the crash. ALso TVNZ’s first comprehensive documentary on the Mt Erebus Disaster.
Air New Zealand, Antarctic Brochure, 1977 (click open PDF)
OPERATION OVERDUE~
Eleven police officers were called to duty and undertook an extraordinary operation as they came face to face with one of the world’s worst disaster. This is their story. Docudrama feature film
