Heritage Talks: Mt Erebus: 40 years on (Part 2: Memories of that fateful day)
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- čas přidán 16. 12. 2019
- On the morning of 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight TE901 left Auckland for an 11-hour return sightseeing flight to Antarctica. At 12.49pm NZST, the aircraft crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board.
It remains the worst civil disaster in New Zealand's history. In the summer of 1979-1980, Nigel Roberts spent four months at Scott Base on Ross Island as Information Officer / Photographer.
Listen to Part 2 of this Heritage Talk, where Nigel Roberts talks about this fateful day in Antarctica.
In Part 1 of this Heritage Talk, Nigel Roberts shares his memories of life in Antarctica. Listen/watch: • Heritage Talks: Mt Ere...
This talk was presented by the New Zealand Antarctic Society at Central City Library on 27 November 2019.
Listen to more Heritage Talks on the Auckland Libraries podcast: / auckland-libraries - Zábava
I REMEMBER , I WAS 15 LIVING IN ROTORUA WHEN THIS HAPPENED. EVEN THOUGH I WAS A KID, I UNDERSTOOD THAT THIS WAS SERIOUS. NOTHING LIKE THIS HAD NEVER HAPPENED IN NEW ZEALAND BEFORE, AND WE WERE ALL SHOCKED AND AFRAID. FANTASTIC RECOLLECTION. THANK YOU.
Fascinating talk, even better pictures! Aa correction: the Nov 14, 1979 flight (Leslie Simpson's) did not stay at 16,000 feet the entire time, but dropped down to 2,000 feet.
Thanks so much for sharing
One of our most shameful episodes. As New Zealanders we may be friendly and kind, BUT we also dont like to admit when we stuff things up.
To Matt Thrun-Nowicki The picture of the DC10 on 14th Nov 1979 was high but as you say, it was nowhere near 16,000 feet. 2,000 feet should have been the caption, that is IF the picture was that of Les Simpsons flight - or??? Have you stumbled upon a conspiracy that the pilots from the 9th Nov briefing were supposed to be at 16,000/6,000 feet. Probably not but it was just a miss labelling of photos. It could be interesting to recheck the dates of the photos and reassess the heights wherever possible. Did ALPA pull any tricks on this one? I do not think we will ever know.
The official advice was that all flights should not go below 16,000 feet or 6,000 over the base, but in reality none of the flights had done this apart from the first two in early 1977.
Remember saying these planes don’t crash like that. In Melbourne it was in the evening when the first news came though that the plane was missing. At first the story was it was just late & had lost its radio. However when the time the plane ran of fuel passed the whole story just changed . I remember that night. It was the next morning I found out what really happened.
THE ENGINE ROCKETED OUT OF THE TAIL HOUSING,,,VERY VERY SAD...
So many accidents of this kind are complete pilot error. I know what the report determined. But, two pilots, inexperienced on this route, flying in thick clouds, off the stand route, way too low. That's not just management error.
The main cause of the crash was that the coordinates were changed at the last minute without informing the pilots.