Mount Erebus Disaster (Air New Zealand Flight 901) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2021
- This video went out on my Patreon In November 1979, an Air New Zealand passenger plane crashed on the continent of Antarctica. the lives of everyone on board were lost in the disaster. A DC10 collided with Mount Erebus on Antarctica's Ross Island. Why did Air New Zealand flight 901 crash in Antarctica? What lead up to the disaster?
Sources:
www.fss.aero/accident-reports...
www.erebus.co.nz/
www.tailstrike.com/281179.htm
nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/ere...
my.christchurchcitylibraries....
aviationknowledge.wikidot.com/...
nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo...
• "EREBUS - The Aftermat...
• "EREBUS - The Aftermat...
www.southpolestation.com/triv...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia...
www.southpolestation.com/triv...
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Are you going to cover British Airtours 28M. That tragedy is why cabin designs have under floor lighting and bulkheads are wide enough for passengers to safely evacuate in emergency. More than 50 people perished from fire and smoke inhalation after an engine explosion on take off. Im requesting this because i live less than 5 miles from Manchester Ringway Airport where this disaster took place.
Thank you so much disaster breakdown.
@@johnnydao1108 i just want to see the Manchester Airport Disaster covered. I live less than 5 miles from Manchester Ringway in England. And a truly horrific disaster occurred there. A disaster which changed the way passenger cabins are designed as thanks to the tragedy of Botish Airtours 328 passemger cabins have wider bulkheadsand under floor lighting in caseof emergency. More than 50 people died in a manic and uncontrollable passenger panic during evacuation. Those who died could have lived had better methods of evacuation and trainning been around. Here in my home city of Manchester it still haunts us Mancunians. We will never forget the horror which occurred on that August day in 1985
@@tommcglone2867 I will do it, it may take a few weeks as there are other videos ahead of it. It's one I've wanted to do for a while and the CVR recording recently surfaced.
Yes.. aftermath vid please!
Sneakily changing the waypoints at night without telling them really sounds like how a character in a paperback murder-mystery novel would kill someone.
the original "waypoint" was supposed to be mt. erebus . however this was wrongly input to mcmurdo sound position. naturally the pilots got used to that. there was however some busybody that corrected that mistake without telling anybody. hence they hit the mountain.
@@ursodermatt8809 that "mistake" was found out by Justice Mahon to be a lie by Air New Zealand to "fudge" the issue by making it look as they were doing the right thing by correcting an error. The pilots of other sightseeing flights testified at the enquiry that the flight path always went down Mc Murdo sound, they were never briefed to fly directly at Mt Erebus.
@@nztv8589
and muldoon and air NZ chief were mates and therefore the airNZ chief could no lie ... and mahon was rubbished by muldoon and everything white washed.
this is a very disappointing era for NZ
@@nztv8589
you got that one wrong.
the inputting error was done at the very beginning. some busybody then discovered it and corrected it where it was supposed to be. but did not inform anybody.
but even the chief navigator was not aware what it meant and thought the discrepancy was only 2 miles when it was something like 27 miles.
and that way point behind mt erebus should never have been chosen directly without the waypoint at mcmurdo sound.
so there were multiple errors and incompetencies in the navigation inputs of the computer.
just as the coverup was incompetent.
@@nztv8589
i suggest you watch the documentary. as a matter of fact i watched a second documentary but that was years back and it said the same thing.
now naturally i do not know what was written in the book and i don't know how you interpreted this. as i could possibly be wrong in interpreting.
main thing is the government really fucked this up. also the way they sent local police to the antarctic to pick up the bodies.
it is a big slur on NZ. i feel particularly bad about this as i lived in NZ for a while. and think NZ is one of the best places to live.
i will try to find your book and i like you to watch that NZ documentry. i added the link in one of my comments.
thanks
New Zealander here who lived thru this and lost 2 people I know on the flight. One passenger and one cabin
crew. I worked with his wife and on a previous flight saw all the photos he took. so tragic. I still remember getting dressed to the news the next day and listening to the list of passengers and crew lost hearing their names and crying, then having to continue getting dressed and go to work. Most new Zealanders knew someone on the flight and we all felt devastated and furious with Air NZ in the aftermath. Full sympathy with the pilot and his family. I was disgusted by it but the truth did come out in NZ. We all watched it and once we knew about the flight change it all made sense. No way was its the pilots fault. They werent where they were supposed to be. My workmate lost her husband and her kids their dad. the kids coped by playacting smashing planes into a mountain in their sandpit. i still cry remembering her telling me that. Lost contact with them over the years with job changes, Just hope all worked out for them as a family, They still in my thoughts even today. Her husbands body was recognisable and intact, the damage internal ,All I could do was hug her and tell her I cared. She was still in shock. christmas presents under the tree for someone who wouldnt return. I will never forget the accident or them even tho life goes on and we lose contact over time. love u You know who you are xxxx. I will never forgive Air NZ for their part in this and their attempt to blame the pilot for their mistake. I dont think Air NZ ever regained the trust or love of the public again after this. we all understand mistakes can be made but to try and blame the pilot for their changes is unforgivable. Would have had more respect for them to have stood up and admitted their error. That would be forgivable.
That's a very well written reminder of the human cost of these disasters. It's too easy to read casualties as numbers and disregard the devastating, endless, emotional cost of the ripple effect. Your comment made that impossible.
@@philhughes3882 thankyou
Hi Olivia. I knew this did hurt us & that ANZ told us lies to cover up there mistakes. They should have admitted to their mishandling of this. I felt so sad for the pilots on board but what made me angry was Muldoon saying it was the pilots fault. I always go to the memorial at the Waikumete cemetery.
I read your story with interest. I was a foreign student at otago university just finished my last exams and all. In anticipation I had booked on this flight with the student travel of the university ( fare was about $400). The plan was to go down the Antarctica and get a photo( now a selfie I guess) at the south pole and say I have been to the end of the earth and back. That was my main motivation.. when I got the provisional itinerary it was Christchurch ( as origin) and Christchurch as destination. I went back next day and told them the sole reason I was going there was for the photo op. They explained no way was there a landing there. I told them to get me to Australia instead. To Melbourne first and back from Sydney. I covered Melbourne Sydney by train.
4 am in a George street nightclub that morning shaking to the grove and some one tapped on my shoulder and told me my plane had disappeared in Antarctica. Got sober pretty quick. Followed everything after that and Muldoon utterings.
At one point I thought I had a close call but now I know I would have never gone there without the photo op
My heart is with those who perished here. And captain Collins family for being told their dad was an incompetent to fly a perfectly good plane into an always stationary mountain
My question is why nzers / Kiwis forgave air new Zealand. Was it lack of alternatives . That has never been clear to me.
Here is a company that lied and lied throughout the report and throughout the public enquiry. Orchestrated litany of lies was the term used. Why would kiwis entrust their lives to such liers?
@@haiwatigere6202 you had a lucky near miss there, so glad you are here still. People of that generation never forgave the airline. At the time we didnt have a lot of choice for flying but now with more airlines in NZ there is far more choice with who to fly with. I think til then we had been very proud of our airline. I think over time Air NZ regained some trust and probably as the years passedyounger people didnt know the full story. Remember back then there was no internet etc. it was newspapers and books and the tv we got all our info from. Even now when we talk about it , it is very clear we have never forgiven the airline even if talking to strangers especially those of us who lost someone we knew.
How horrible that the pilot was maligned by his airline, when he was following a procedure that had been established and followed so frequently before. I learned something new about this disaster today; thanks for another wonderful production.
That made me unbelievably angry. How f**king dare they?
@@Mochrie99 Yes!! Trying to wreck the name of a good man...after he died doing what THEY told him to do. Just NO.
Unfortunately, that's common in both airlines and the military. Rather than admitting there's a bigger problem or that higher ups may be responsible, it's always easier and legally expedient to blame the crew who are no longer alive to defend themselves.
there was lots of shit going in NZ, like stealing diaries etc and lying big time
@@ressljs
it is always the pilots fault, even when the wings fall off midflight
...It made famous the phrase: "An orchestrated litany of lies"...
My great uncle was on this flight. I remember finding out when i was young that i was named after him. I was born just under a year after the crash. He loved his travels from the stories i got told when i was young. R.I.P to all those lives that were lost that day.
It might be worth noting, since the video doesn't make this clear, that the aircraft was not flying in cloud immediately before the accident. The scary thing about the phenomenon of sector whiteout is that it can render a mountain invisible even in clear air.
I was wondering about that. Makes sense either way. Didn’t learn about this whiteout condition till this video and reading the comments. Thanks homie.
@@KonwTheTrut One of the heroes of the whole story is an Air New Zealand Captain called Gordon Vette . He wouldnt allow the name of one of his colleagues ( Captain Collins ) to be besmirched in such a way when he had been killed and couldnt defend himself .Captain Vette ( at great personal professional risk to himself ) investigated and wrote a book called Impact Erebus which discussed Sector Whiteout . It does get very technical but is really interesting . RIP to all those who died and to Captain Vette , who died a few years ago .
Technically it was not a Whiteout, it was something called a Flat-Light phenomenon. The aircraft was below the cloud cover and they could see for miles but because the mountian blended with the ice on the sound below and there was no direct sunlight to show any features it made it look like flat terrain.
How unfair of the airline to pin this on the pilots, when they didn't prepare them properly! I would love a followup video, too.
I would also love to hear more about the aftermath. I can’t believe the government sided with the airline and allowed those poor pilots to bear the whole of the responsibility
Afaik the government at the time owned the airline so had a political stake in the outcome of the investigation. The Prime Minister of the day, a Trump-like figure (google Piggy Muldoon if interested), setup an inquiry after a public outcry. That inquiry found against the airline and Muldoon set out to smear the judge who chaired that enquiry in the media. Note that I wasn't born then so I may be wrong about a lot of this but the above is my understanding of the events surrounding that.
@@KSJAFN Muldoon was a nasty piece of work when crossed.
@@KSJAFN Well that makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain!
@@bazza945 totally agree
Government and business are in bed together. They would be acting against their own interests if they admitted their country's airline was incompetent. The airline likely paid off some officials and all of a sudden they discover evidence to suggest pilot error.
"An orchestrated litany of lies" Justice Mahon - a courageous man.
But one who unfortunately did not seem to understand the proper fail-safe philosophy of piloting. To place the lion's share of blame on a navigation device not intended for terrain avoidance seems to me to be very misguided. How it is that after all the pilot inputs he receieved, he was able to turn sound pilot wisdom on its head, remains a mystery to me. This is not to say he deserves much praise for exposing the corruption and deceit within the airline.
Totally agree. Certain CEO's seem to have avoided manslaughter charges quite easily in the past. Can't shake the feeling that money changes hands from time to time - between whom i wouldn't care to contemplate.
@ReklessRagnar Thank you for your earlier comments in the other thread.
Well, let me ask you, does the truth tell us that, under visual meteorological conditions (VMC) one should begin a descent below MSA without first VISUALLY (not meaning to shout) confirming where the mountain is?
This I think is the key question, and one rather brushed over by both Justice Mahon and Gordon Vette. I read the Vette book cover to cover many times, and this point is simply left out of the debate. This is one reason why I feel the Mahon report was off base in important ways. But then so was the Chippindale. Neither one got it completely right IMO. For me personally, if there were a "single most dominant"cause of the crash, it would more likely be the failure of ANZ to train its pilots about sector whiteout and strictly forbid it flying under cloud layers. Had they done so, it would have mooted all the other failure points in one swoop.
@ReklessRagnar PS I debated this some years ago at PPRuNe, the preeminent pilots forum. From this and other discussions it became clear to me that there is a virtual pilot consensus that the crew of 901, under textbook VFR, needed to make a positive fix before descending below minimum safe altitude. But, relying too much on the onboard navigation, they failed to do this. The clouds below them prevented it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those Collins bashers. He was a very competent pilot who should not have been scapegoated. To single him out, that's where I would agree with Mahon. The context doesn't support a reckless crew. They were one piece in a complex freak chain of events.
@@cchris874 As a lawyer and someone who lost a close friend on that disaster, I can tell you this. Justice Peter Mahon was a straight up decent human being. A very well respected High Court Judge. His report as the head of a Royal Commission into the disaster had nothing to do with "the proper fail-safe philosophy of piloting". He looked at the facts, found that Air NZ changed the coordinates of the flight but never told the flight crew, then spent the night of the crash shredding documents and as a High Court Judge, found the testimony of the Air NZ minions to be nothing more than "an orchestrated litany of lies". That was a big statement from a High Court Judge and totally believable. Why would Captain Collins deliberately drive a plane into a mountain when he thought he was 30 miles away? Collins was a very experienced pilot. Muldoon was a drunk and an arsehole who was trying to protect New Zealand's biggest asset at the time.Try to Google the Royal Commission Report and draw your own conclusions but please do not jump to the conclusion it was pilot error..
My friend was working on plane until 1. Am that morning. He said it had just come out of extensive maintemence , so obvious nothing mechanical was involved from onset. He said it was surreal to see this beautiful bird he had been on hours before smashed into a million pieces.
An air tour of the Antarctic sounds like a one-in-a-lifetime trip, but I'm not sure I'd do it now learning of this disaster. What a tragedy for those poor tourists and cabin crew.
I'd do it if they stuck to a safer altitude. Dropping that low is insane. When I was in the Air Force, we flew over the north end of Greenland, and even from over 30,000 feet, it was breathtaking. Obviously, for a sight seeing tour, you'd want to go lower, but there's no reason to go down to 6000 feet or below.
I've worked Antarctic ATC on/off since 1990s. Tech and navigation aids have improved immeasurably since. It's as safe a flight now as any other.
czcams.com/video/hpapBf0oOjE/video.html
@@ressljs I wonder if in an attempt to sell even more tickets the airline allowed the flights to fly at a lower altitude to ' give the public what they wanted' . That is the sight seeing experience of a lifetime and is so often the case this trumps safety .
@@ressljsfor sure! Do we know what their altitude was before impact?
They reprogrammed the plane to fly at the mountain, failed to tell the pilot, then tried to cover up what they had done. And because of whiteout the pilot could not see that he had been put on a collision course with a high mountain. He trusted his instruments and his briefing, thinking they coincided, as they should have, but his instruments had been changed. The judge that presided over the subsequent enquiry, Justice Mahon, saw through the cover-up and said he had been subjected to 'an orchestrated litany of lies.' The then management of Air New Zealand hated that, of course, said he had no right to say it, and mounted a case against him. But it was obvious that he was right. The big question is why did they reset the course? They had trained the pilot for a safe course over the sea, then in the middle of the night changed it to an unsafe one, headed for a mountain. Why? It was bad enough to change it, it was worse to do it in the middle of the night, it was shocking not to tell the crew what they had done. Captain Collins was a very careful pilot; he did not deserve this.
This crash, as well as Alaska airlines flight 261 are examples of plane crashes that was caused because the airlines tried to cut corners
Every time I watch docu’s on this disaster I come to the same conclusion.. that the flight path was changed last minute and that the pilots that’ve never flown there before were required much more than they were able or had been taught about the path & landscape
Not far from where I live is a house currently falling down that was owned by a family on this flight. It has been abandoned ever since.
Sad
That’s just terrible. Omg 😢
A very simplified description, but nonetheless, a very good video that tells the nuts and bolts of the story well. There is some additional information that is worth noting.
1. The track down McMurdo Sound was actually an error in the first place that had lain in the flight programming for over 14 months. The original planned path was to the east of Mount Erebus from Cape Hallet, but the erroneous path down McMurdo Sound had been caused by a programmer transposing two digits in longitude. Nonetheless, this erroneous path had been flown so often that it was thought by the flight crews to be the correct one. When the Navigation Dept made their change to the flight path on the morning of the ill-fated flight, it was because the original planned path was to the McMurdo Base NDB, which had been replaced with a TACAN beacon two miles to the west. They thought they were changing the flight path two miles to the west (to line-up with that TACAN beacon) whereas they were unknowingly correcting the error made 14 months earlier and moving the path 27 miles to the east.
2. Air NZ tried to maintain that the flight path was never meant to be down McMurdo Sound and was never briefed to the pilots (even though the evidence from other pilots showed that it clearly was). Capt Collins would have plotted his flight path on a topographic map (his daughters gave evidence that they saw him doing this on the kitchen table the night before the flight). Capt Collins' flight bag was found at the crash site, but it was empty. One of the Air NZ investigators was earlier seen carrying a blue plastic folder away from the flight deck area of the wreckage, but he denied this later. It is suspected that Air NZ did not want any maps showing that Capt Collins might have plotted a track down McMurdo Sound as this would run counter to their claims about that track.
3. Capt Collins home was broken into a short time afterwards, and documents were taken (while valuable items such as money and jewellery was left behind). It is very much suspected that Air NZ boss Morrie Davis or a member or members of his board was behind this break-in, though nothing was ever proved. It is thought they were making sure that no maps made by Capt Collins had been left at home and would suddenly turn up as evidence at the inquiry.
Justice Peter Mahon's ruling that AirNZ representatives lied under oath (he called it _"an orchestrated litany of lies"_ ) might have been officially overturned, but his ruling as to the cause of the accident (the incompetence of Air NZ management) was not. Most Kiwis place the blame squarely on Air NZ's mismanagement and appallingly lax administration. Air NZ and the NZ Govt may have had a partial victory in court, but they lost in the court of public opinion.
In the end, Justice Mahan had the last laugh - he wrote a book _Verdict on Erebus_ in which he renews his claim that Air NZ were less than truthful in their testimony. To this day _Verdict on Erebus_ is still considered to be the definitive work on the Erebus disaster.
My dad was at Scott base with NZDF when this happened, I was only 7, he was one of the first search and recovery team up there, I still have the original photos of the crash site that he had taken.
@Heavenly Scents Wow, amazing.
Yes please do a deeper dive into this one if possible, it's a really interesting crash. The investigating judge's opinion that Air New Zealand's testimony was "an orchestrated litany of lies" is still well-known in NZ today.
I find that to be one of the greatest phrases ever.
This disaster had another victim, the DC-10’s future in the ANZ fleet.
After this crash the airline retired all their DC-10s, swapping them for 747s.
I know the plane wasn't perfect, but it seemed it was very much a victim of irresponsible airlines. When one crashed immediately after takeoff from Chicago after an engine fell off, the plane's reputation was damaged to the point that Douglas never really recovered. But it was mostly American Airlines fault for using forklifts to raise and lower the engines during maintenance (definitely NOT approve procedures, it damaged the mounting pylons). The American Airlines chief mechanic that was supposed to testify about their procedures ended up committing suicide instead. But to the public, "DC-10" was associated with the disaster, not American Airlines.
@@ressljs this is true of most crashes…improper maintenance, cutting corners. The DC-10 just happened to have more incidents when it was a popular plane in a time of shitty maintenance.
@@ressljs Well said.. that 's what happened. People regarded the Air Nz crash as somehow tied up with DC10 problems but that was not true. It got to be called in the industry the Death Cruiser ten as joke.. and mud sticks. TE Fidler NzL
Additional horror flights - FLT United 232 crash landing of a DC 10 was a ENGine construction quality issue along with lack of NDT during service and was not really an aircraft (McD ) quality issue but that also sullied the reputation of the aircraft. Again a bit unfairly. Changes were made to the hydraulics of the fleet to ensure this type of engine explosion could not cause such a flight failure again. The aircraft as it stood met all FAA flight certification requirements wrt turbine failure. TEF
I think a jet falling off at LAX didn’t help ether.
And for why? The aircraft had no issue. The pilots followed procedures. 100% human error on part of airline + ATC.
Even sadder, is that one of the other most significant accidents involving an Air NZ plane, the crash of XL Airways Germany Flight 888T (which was a plane leased from Air NZ and painted in Air NZ colours for its imminent return to Air NZ) happened on the anniversary day of the Erebus disaster, 27th November 2008.
The crew piloting that plane were either French or German not the kiwis
@@superscatsgirly There were kiwi's on board!
@@the_alex_ellis_channel6923 There was a supervising Kiwi.
I knew someone who was on the flight (it was a reward for her doing well in a school exam), also knew a person who worked at Air NZ who worked out the flight's fuel requirements, his work was investigated in case he had not ordered enough fuel but all was found to be in order) and a member of my family was in the body recovery and identification team and worked for six weeks trying to piece bodies together to be returned to their loved ones. It was a terrible time for him. This disaster is deeply etched into the souls of New Zealanders.
I wss an employee of ANZ when this accident occured.
It was a terrible time for the employees and the country. When the Royal Commission uncoverrd the fact of the change in the flight coordinates without briefing the flight crew, public anger mounted. The flight crew were not at fault, despite the GM of the company
so stating publicly.
Later I became a flight attendant and loved the sleek DC10.
R.I.P to all who died.
🙏🏽
My father went to the crash site as part of the police body recovery unit. I believe they recovered 80% of the passengers bodies. They worked for two weeks straight camped out on the side of the mountain in some pretty tough conditions.
Bs
Even as a total layperson (I'm not a pilot or involved in aviation), if I was in charge of the formal inquiry I would have asked Air NZ, "If you hadn't changed the flight path and the pilots did the same moves in the air, does the crash still happen?"
If the answer is no, then you changing the plans and not telling them stitched the pilots up.
I’d love to see a video on more of the aftermath of this flight! Go for it!
Here ya go.
czcams.com/video/vbGpNOmurNM/video.html
czcams.com/video/NJbGnk24JGE/video.html
I’m sure they mean made by “disaster breakdown”
Me too...apparently the retrieval operation was horrific😳
@@samdevallance1527 I read that the recovery operation was hampered by bad weather that could change suddenly so that the helicopters couldnt land and the workers would be stranded for hours on the mountain side in these extremely inhospitable conditions . They also had to cover the bodies whilst waiting for the helicopters to protect them from the Skua Gulls . To try and keep their spirits up and to warm themselves they also drank alcohol from the crashed aircraft . On one level that sounds macabre . but I dont blame them .
Calm down edgy white liberal . Or look up the photos yourself
I was working at Air New Zealand at that time as an engineer. It was devastating being there. My friends daughter was a air hostess on the flight, and the way it changed him incredibly sad.
Air New Zealand was owned by the government and Muldoon and his mate Morrie Davis (CEO) needed someone to blame , so they tried to put it onto the pilots. The CAA , another government dept was also in on it, can't remember the name of the chief investigator . Justice Mahn in the inquiry summed it up they were lying about everything .
Investigator was CHIPPENDALE. They gave him a medal for his assistance in Air Nz getting Lloyds to pay out. His report twas corrupt and had technical errors of major importance in it. For instance about the capabilities of the airborne radar to detect ice on mountainsides. He just pulled that out of his arse. Bendix avionics was intereviewed by Mahan in the US on a fact finding tour and they told him outright , it can detect water in the air, it is a weather radar - it cannot detect dry ice and work as a GPWS. But that's what CHippendale put in the report.
It has never been revised. (not even after Mahan) .. the major report on the disaster is full of BS and a corrupted voice recorder transcript which he intentionally corrupted. There are two versions of the CVR recording now in consequence. Dirty dog got run down by a car in WGTN by accident. Served him right. He never cottoned on to the fact that they were flying the wrong route. It took Mahan, a non airman , to work that out. TEF Nz
Absolutely correct. Chippendale was teh one you are thing about and Gordon Vette was no better
@@EnglishLawyer Didnt Gordon Vette write a book trying to clear the pilots ?
Ron Chippendale
@@EnglishLawyer Have to disagree on this one. Gordon Vette was a staunch supporter of the pilots. He even Got an honorary Engineering degree after his studies on Sector whiteout and basically wrote the book on this subject today. (He also saved a Private pilots life when his plane got lost over the pacific ocean and Vette diverted his Airliner to assist the poor fellow) A true Legend of aviation. There's a good movie about it called Mercy Flight.
i’m from new zealand and thank you for making this video. everyone has heard about this disaster but not everyone knows the details.
Great job. If you do a deeper probe, please explore why the airline did an overnight change to coordinates and failed to apprise the crew. Also why pilot descended before ground radar ATC guidance. Watching these videos the most common theme boils down to the fact that someone or several ones in the event's chain of causes is in a rush (eg Tenerife pilot wanted to get home within allotted crew air duty time; Japan mountain crash -- tail repair rushed causing incomplete riveting; Canadian near crash (out of fuel) quick calculation across metric/imperial quantity measurements. McDonnell-Douglas failed to fully fix cargo doors in order to rush plane back into service, etc.)
The most haunting image in reference to photos and videos taken onboard ANZ901 is when the camera pans to show a young woman with sunglasses holding a camera.
That rarest of unicorns, a DC-10 crash that wasn't the DC-10's fault.
American Airlines flight 191 too.
Not really. Pretty much EVERY DC-10 crash other than the cargo door incidents were 100% on the airlines. The plane gets an unfair rep. It was a GEM of an aircraft and pilots who flew it all hold it in high regard. Certainly my favorite commercial aircraft ever built.
The Chicago crash earlier in the year was also not the aircraft's fault.
Well no surprise that Air New Zealand try to absolve themselves of any blame, seems to be common in the airline industry. From what i remember the Judge in the public enquiry heavily criticised Air New Zealand, but to no avail.
@greymark. You are not wrong. Rob Muldoon the NZ Prime Minister caused Peter Mahons early death by calling him a loser in modern day terms. Shame on Muldoon. The Chief Executive of Air NZ started off as an ink well filler in the office of Air NZ. He had no training or formal education. Fact.
The judge in the commission of enquiry pulled no punches when he described the attempted cover up as "an orchestrated littany of lies" - strong man, strong judge
The photo in the very beginning of this video was the actual DC10 the crashed into mount Erebus ZK-NZP if anyone is intrested about the public enquiries findings go on CZcams and bringing up Erebus After math it's a two part program both hour and a half long but it is very interesting to watch
A more in depth video on this incident would be welcome!
I lived in NZ during this and remember the first report being published by the NZ Government Printing Office where I worked. People were coming in and buying a copy and reading it as they walked down the road. The whole incident was unbelievable and a national tragedy.
My Aunty perished aboard that flight, I was only 7 at the time of the disaster. Remember that night vividly, as our family huddled together as confirmation of wreckage was found later in the late night of the 28 Nov, which coincidently we have just had the 42rd anniversary of it a couple of days ago
This was really well done. I have read extensively into this crash and considered both sides of the fence regarding pilot error and airline administrative blunders. I think the answer is a combination of both: no single party can be blamed outright.
For me the aspect I keep coming back to is that whilst it is true previous flights descended way below the supposed MSA of 16,000 feet to get good views, all of them did so with radar guidance from McMurdo. In the case of the accident flight, Jim Collins did not wait until his DC10 was identified on radar before commencing his descent. He descended thinking he could do so in VFR condiitions, but sadly the crew did not realise that VFR conditions in Antarctica are in no way the same as anywhere else, and could indeed be deadly due to the effects of sector whiteout. If Collins had waited for the Americans at McMurdo station to say "radar contact established", then I believe we would never have heard anything about this flight.
I have done the same as you - reflected long and hard on this very polarized debate, and for many years at that. One of my main critiques of the Mahon report is singling out the incorrect coordinates entered into the INS as the "single most dominant cause." But as I understand it, this device was not intended to be used for terrain avoidance, and therefore not a reliable substitute for either visual or instrument approaches. Kind of like blaming your GPS for crashing into a brick wall. Wondering if you agree.
@@cchris874 I would agree Chris, yes. I have Mahon's book and it did a much better job at looking at all possible aspects of the disaster than the Chippendale Report which was rushed due to public pressures. I think Mahon's point is more about ANZ's failings in changing the coordinates and not telling the aircrew rather than INS being used as GPWS per se, but the whole thing would have been a moot point anyway if they had just waited to get identified on radar.
The point I didn't put in my original post clearly is the whole VFR in Antarctica situation. This is where ANZ let Collins & Cassin down badly. If they had told them before departure that all your current knowledge on VFR flying goes out the window in polar conditions, the outcome would have been very different.
@@alistair-01 Thank you for your reply. I couldn't agree more. The failure to include polar whiteout in their pilot training is the perhaps the best candidate for "most dominant factor", as it mooted all the other errors at the outset. By contrast, anyone at any time, can punch in a wrong digit. Or in their excitement of the moment, put a little bit too much faith in their onboard navigation. Collins was by all accounts as meticulous as they get. My theory is he probably allowed his excitement and pressure to get things done with so little available fuel, that something unconsciously gave, and what better candidate than an AINS that had worked as planned right up to the last half hour? To me this counts as contributory, not primary. Just speculating of course.
@@cchris874 Definitely a "pressure to perform" element at play here. This was the last flight of the season in 1979, and there were rumours it could actually be the last ever flight. The aircrew was actually forewarned by a weather station that the weather at McMurdo was unsuitable for entertaining the passengers, and an alternate route was in fact available, but it would have been nothing compared to shooting straight down McMurdo Sound and seeing Scott Base etc. So yes I think the pressure to keep the passengers happy was another factor at play here. I agree Collins by all accounts was an exceptional airman and decent human being. Sadly none of his skill would help him save the plane though.
@@alistair-01 This sounds very self-serving, but you know what, I feel we are among the few who have been able to see the valid points of each side in this very polarized, often ill informed debate, and arrive at a balanced conclusion. Most people seem to be of the view that either Mahon and Vette were unbiased saviors who refuted the forces of evil and arrived at absolute truth; or that Collins was simply a reckless pilot who single-handedly dragged his unwilling crew to their and their passengers' deaths.
It would be great to see a deeper dive into the Mt. Erebus disaster, in particular the inquiry that was eventually convened and the cover up by Air New Zealand that was exposed. It was shocking the depths the airline sank to and the
proliferation of lies they put forth in their attempt to avoid responsibility and shift blame to the pilots. Hope to see it at some point. Great job on this and all your previous DB vids. Keep up the excellent work!
m.czcams.com/video/xyWvOI_MD-Q/video.html
m.czcams.com/video/VImFx0GrjHE/video.html
m.czcams.com/video/avnBAtLvVqY/video.html
Change the coordinates and not inform the flight crew?
That would be like changing a walkway at a Zoo to go through a lion’s den and not telling the visitors.
Why were the Flight Coordinates changed anyway? Afterall the previous Flightpath was where it was intended to go.
"More Chilling than others" Icy what you did there.
And "Icy" what you did there.
you guys are cold
Yall cold blooded
I never thot I would enjoy this kind of content. But I’ve been hooked since the first video I’ve watched of yours :)
Well done! You deserve more subscribers
Thank you, I am glad you like the content :)
Are you in this type of industry at all? Bcuz you are very knowledgeable!
I wanted to be. I was well on my way to achieve my pilots license, I had a few exams left and my Flying School closed unfortunately. My main professional background is in video production.
That’s unfortunate you weren’t able to. After doing these disaster videos. Would u still be able to?? I don’t think I could. ;)
I'd love to see a more detailed video about the other elements of this crash!
Excellent work all around - Im glad to have found your channel
There’s a two-part documentary that was made in New Zealand I think in the early 80s which is available on CZcams. I forget the title but I think if you search on a Erebus part one Erebus part two you should be able to find.
An extraordinarily tragic accident that should ever have happened. I remember this tragedy happening and the blame game that ensued afterwards. Another brilliantly constructed and narrated video Chloe 👏
It's gross that Air New Zealand tried to pin this tragedy on the pilots, especially Captain Collins! 😒
Collins made a few messes too. THe flew way outside the Air Nz SOPs when they did the let down onto the sea ice area (they thought) with no effective radar control and no sightings of unique ground features. B. they made no attempt to check their track over ground given that they earlier passed massively to the wrong side of Beaufort Is. which was a massive and visible landmark (as shown by a camera photo from one of the deceased) along their track. C. When VHF comms started failing indicating an obstacle between them and MC Atc they did not take any action to reverse their flight path.
THe could have had a minor INS Nav failure and equally slammed into Erebus with exactly the same flight deck deficiencies down near the ice and then - would Collins still be pure and angelic. ? TEF
Don't trust your company to standby you.
Plenty of examples of companies blaming employees .
See Crown casino in china !
I love your work! It’s professional, succinct and interesting to consume!
You did a really good job reasurching this case. It's rare to see topics from NZ properly reported on.
Great work! I would be interested in your more in-depth documentary of this tragic accident. Thank you!
Just finished a history assessment on this lol. The Mahon Report is a great read, as is the documentary on the recovery operation. Very nice video.
I'm not sure the lol was required lol
@@kennethjohnwilkinson174 okay lol
Great, another new channel for me to binge watch all night ✈️
Air new Flight 901
Date: 28 November 1979
Cause: Controlled flight into terrain
Site mount Erebus Antarctica
Coordinates: 77°25′30″S 167°27′30″E
Aircraft type:McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
Operators: air new Zealand
Call sign: NEW ZEALAND 901
Registration: ZK-NZP
Flight origin: Auckland International Airport
1st stopover: Non-stop flight over Antarctica
Last stopover: Christchurch International Airport
Destination: Auckland International Airport
Occupant: 257
Passenger: 237
Crew:20
Fatalities:257
Survivors: 0
(Original by Wikipedia)
Well presented it was a sad day I am a kiwi aged 61 I remember it so well, I shall never forget
@Brooke B yes that was sad, I'm not Muslim but that austrailian guy who came here and wiped them out will rot in jail
just found your channel my friend and i’ve never subscribed faster! keep up the content brother, it’s so so good!!
Love to hear more about this one. Great work as always!
Even if the aircraft had remained at 6000', it would still have crashed into (much higher) Mt Erebus. The error - unbeknown to the flight crew - inadvertently introduced beforehand into the flight path co-ordinates while correcting another very minor error, together with inimical local weather conditions (whiteout), caused this crash. There was hope for hours afterwards that the aircraft may have landed somewhere in the Antarctic.
This is the best description of this tragedy I have ever seen! Well done!!
Great video it’s amazing to see these kinds of vids with great editing and easy to follow storyline
Much appreciated. Glad you like them!
Superb, as always! Your background in video production really shows. Have you considered Eastern 401? I'm sure you would do a better job than that movie that was made back in the seventies. Another controlled flight into terrain, but at least there were survivors.
The quality of the information is outstanding
Would love to see more about this crash. Great video and be well.
Look on CZcams for "Erebus the Aftermath" Part 1 and 2. A docudrama I uploaded years ago. This will tell you the whole story.
You have done a very good job describing what happened and how it occurred. As far as the aftermath and body recovery that is a whole other story.
Another good video.
I was wondering if you are going to do a disaster breakdown video on XL Airways X888T?
Great work man! Very well done this channel should and will get to 1 million subs! Thank you!
Really enjoying your channel.
I've watched all of your videos.
Please do the Sea-Tac hijack!!
Consumer home film cameras were "a rarity" in the 70's? Taking home movies was one of the most popular hobbies that decade. I barely knew ONE father who didn't have a movie camera.
The flight number (ANZ901) shown in this video is incorrect. The correct flight number was TE901. And, as others have commented, the correct registration of the accident aircraft was ZK-NZP (not ZK-NZL as shown).
Excelent video once more. Waiting for your take on Adam Air Flight 574 flight.
Wow the weeks are flying in, another great video as usual, before I even watch it 👌
Yes would love to hear more. Really interesting video 👍🏻
I would welcome a follow up video. Again you have done such a great job of reporting and the graphics and photos were very good (as usual)! This was a terrible coverup of a terrible crash. Also airlines should never have flights numbered with any combination of 901. Weird coincidences.
FINALLY
I've been waiting for this one
Hey you should consider doing a video on the DC-10 cargo door design flaw that crippled American 96 and led to the crash of Turkish 981
Your content is amazing!
This accident gripped me, both due to the exoticism of the location, and the controversy surrounding the after-effects. I’ve posted quite a bit on this crash because I dove in deeply and read every source I could get my hands on- the Chippindale and Mahon Reports, Mahon’s book, Vette’s book, even the long-out-of-print Erebus Papers (which is actually the best and most comprehensive source).
What’s incredible to me is that, in most instances, what superficially appears to be conspiratorial on first glance is often rationally explainable as non-conspiratorial after a little research.
With Air NZ 901, it’s the complete opposite. The closer you look and the more strings you tug on, the deeper and more clearly sinister the picture becomes. See, for example, the Air NZ board minutes from December 5, 1979, where it’s admitted that the flight was “off track” and “considerably left of centre”, implying Air NZ thought the track ran down McMurdo Sound after all, despite their public statements to the contrary. Or the dramatic alteration of Capt Ross Johnson’s account of the McMurdo waypoint change, from his internal Air NZ memos (where he admitted Capt Simpson told him the cross track difference was about 30 miles) to his Royal Commission testimony (where he denied this wholeheartedly, saying Simpson basically told him to move the waypoint to the Tacan, and not in a million years would he dream the difference was on the order of 27 miles).
I completely sympathize with Mahon’s impulse to address the elephant in the room- it was so obvious that Air NZ executive staff were lying through their teeth, it would shameful to NOT do so.
Wtf this guy deserves more subs!! Enjoyed your vids
Still waiting for a more in depth video, this is my second time watching this. Really haunting that the wreckage is still there 40 years later.
Hello Chloe…TE901 never went to Christchurch en route to Antarctica. It left AKL just after 8am on the morning of the 28th November 1979 and perished at 1249pm on the slopes of Mr Erebus. It was scheduled to make a refuelling stop and crew change in CHC at 1900pm before continuing on to AKL arriving at 2100pm, some 13 hours after it would have left earlier in the day. Also the aircraft depicted in the video was ZK-NZL but the crashed aircraft was NZP, the fourth off the production line of the 8 examples that AIr NZ acquired, of the type. Nearly 45 years after the tragic event the accident is just barely under the surface of the consciousness of many New Zealanders. It had a profound effect on the small inward facing society of the NZ of that time. The aftermath in the years that followed was truly horrendous with the findings pointing the finger at the crew and this was blatantly untrue. It was an incident surrounded in massive controversy and the Muldoon Government was front and centre of the matter. We’d all probably like to forget that this accident ever happened but is woven intricately into the minds, memories and psyches of many of us to this day. Lest we forget the 257 people (20 crew) who died on that terrible day. Love your work Miss Howard.
Thanks for doing this video, this is one of the darkest days in our history
Theres a very good film about the recovery mission, cant remember what it was called though
Actually, it was the 3rd DC10 crash that year. A Western Airlines one landed on the wrong runway at Mexico City after the controllers had repeatedly stated to the crew that it was going to be an ILS side-step maneuver. A horrific year for the 10. You might want to do a vid on this one to complete this type series crashes that year.
Nope. The controllers, although mentioning the ILS and the correct runway 4 times, never used the word "side-step". Not once. Although the ILS was in the closed runway and the landing runway was the parallel to that one.
@@southpakrules there is some really upsetting and harrowing CVR from this crash somewhere on CZcams
@@southpakrules yeah, they never once exactly communicated about the side-step maneuver to the pilots who were unaware of the runway being closed.
The CVR audio is really terrifying.
Still capable of generating heated debate today. The arguments usually devolve into chicken and egg scenarios, the change in track (actually a correction to an incorrect digit), the descent below MSA, the lack of VMC (no matter that the crew believed they were VMC) and whether the lower MSA in the region of the original track absolved the crew of blame.
It should be noted that the coordinates entered into the INS from the paper flight plan were correct. A periodic gross error plot check would have revealed the gradual divergence. Still; these were the standards of the day. It was a complex systemic failure.
the video is very nicely made. very interesting
I'd love an extended Erebus video! May I recommend the book Verdict of Erebus? I have a good friend who's dad was one of the co counsels on the Erebus case, yeah it's still a very big deal back home
Love your content :D
Thanks!
Why oh why did Air New Zealand change from that cool blue & teal livery to that garish black with dopey fern?
Just to appease the Maori's.
@@EnglishLawyer How does that make any sense?
The Koru is often associated with Maori culture.
Very chilling video
love these videos
Thank you so very much for these excellent videos that you make, you are criminally undersubscribed if you ask me!
Very sad for all families involved, and for New Zealand.
Thank you for your video. I would like to learn about the aftermath layers :) I also appreciate the regional crashes (abroad) that no one really hears about. There’s a well of info there.
Thank you for another excellent video & would _definitely_ like to see another video on the aftermath of this accident - it's an opportune time to be reminded about political/corporate overreach & how easily the true guilty parties can cover their own arses if we aren't holding them to account. It would be great to have your level of research & insight applied to the investigation & outcomes of this accident 👍👍
Was in a Bangladeshi DC 10 that touch and goed in a heavy monsoon. The second landing attempt they really opened it up..like a rocket ride into space. It was fully opened up trying to climb over mountain
Is there a way you can let us change the quality or is it a youtube thing? I love your videos! but despite everything else on YT playing fine, yours are always pausing to buffer for some reason, but I can't change the quality to hopefully make them play smoother :(
It's youtube being trash. I assume you're watching on the mobile app? If you've android, use CZcams Vanced instead to be able to switch quality options. It's just a better app altogether
Go to the setting at the bottom of the screen and select the highest resolution you can. Big improvement.
8:20 Not quite correct. The 6,000 feet MSA was for a cloud break procedure.
3:07 No, that's incorrect. The aircraft stopped in Christchurch only on the return to AKL (not the outbound). This was a technical stop for fuel and a crew change.. no pax boarded or disembarked at Christchurch.
I learnt about this accident prior to this video from a documentary. However, the documentary did not mention that the wreckage is still there to this day. That's new information to me and it's actually pretty unsettling to think about that fact. It gives me goosebumps. Imagine you're some kind of professional adventurer who wants to climb Mount Erebus and with no knowledge about this crash and the wreckage. Imagine stumbling across this disturbing sight. That would be a sighting that you surly would never forget.
Well balanced report. Gordon Vette did a campaign on this many years ago.
glad to be noticed as a fellow new Zealander, im also from Christchurch, wich is awsome
Great video! Did you compose the background music? Very moody and fitting!
Air New Zealand 901 went direct to Antarctica from Auckland. There was no record of it landing in Christchurch on the southbound leg. It was however scheduled to make a 45 minute stop in Christchurch on the homeward bound trip for refueling crew change and food/beverage replenishment
what's blurred out on the INS navigation thing?
Disgusting that they pinned the accident on the pilot 😡
I would love a follow up video on this topic ☺️