![]() ![]() Standing with the Prime Minister, the Air New Zealand Chair Dame Therese Walsh apologised on behalf of the airline which she said had failed its duty of care to passengers and staff. On 28 November 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Adern apologised for the actions of the airline which ultimately caused the loss of the aircraft, and the loss of 257 lives. Now, on the occasion of the 40-year commemoration of the disaster, a full apology has been made. It was not tabled in Parliament until the 20-year commemoration in 1999. The Royal Commission report was released in 1981. This changed the flight path from the middle of the flat ice sheet in McMurdo Sound, to a path into Lewis Bay and directly toward Mount Erebus. ![]() The change in the flight co-ordinates resulted in the navigation path shifting east by around 27 miles at the final way point. Among various contributing causes, the dominant and effective cause was found to be a combination of act and omission on the part of Air New Zealand: changing the navigation co-ordinates to be put in the aircraft computer flight plan six hours before departure and failing to tell the flight crew of the change. ![]() The inquiry ran for 75 days with 284 exhibits and 3,083 pages of evidence. The aircraft crashed in broad daylight and in clear air, in polar white-out conditions, into the lower slopes of a 12,000 foot mountain on Ross Island, Antarctica. The Erebus disaster occurred on 28 November 1979. So began the Erebus report, pursuant to Letters Patent of King George V dated, and subject to the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1908. Reposing trust and confidence in his integrity, knowledge and ability, Justice Peter Thomas Mahon was nominated, appointed and constituted as a Royal Commission, to inquire into, and report on, the crash of a DC10 aircraft at Mount Erebus, Antarctica. ![]()
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