Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster: C.A. 95/81 — John Shaqi
Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster: C.A. 95/81New Zealand. Court of Appeal
History
Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster: C.A. 95/81
New Zealand. Court of Appeal
Air New Zealand; Aircraft accidents; New Zealand. Royal Commission to Inquire into the Crash on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, of a DC10 Aircraft Operated by Air New Zealand Limited
(e) When the TACAN position [a navigational aid at McMurdo Station
enabling aircraft to ascertain their distance from it] was typed
into the airline's ground computer in the early morning of 28
November 1979, there was also made the additional entry to which I
have referred, which would result in the new co-ordinates not being
transmitted to McMurdo with the Air Traffic Control flight plan for
that day. It was urged upon me, on behalf of the airline, that
McMurdo Air Traffic Control would consider the word 'McMurdo' as
indicating a different position from that appearing on Air Traffic
Control flight plans dispatched from Auckland during 1978 and 1979.
I cannot for a moment accept that suggestion. First Officer Rhodes
made a specific inquiry at McMurdo within a few days of the
disaster and ascertained that the destination waypoint of the first
Air Traffic Control flight plan for 1979 had been plotted by the
United States Air Traffic Control personnel, and there was evidence
from the United States witnesses that this would be normal
practice. In my view the word 'McMurdo' would merely be regarded,
and was indeed regarded, by McMurdo Air Traffic Control as
referring to the same McMurdo waypoint which had always existed. In
my opinion, the introduction of the word 'McMurdo' into the Air
Traffic Control flight plan for the fatal flight was deliberately
designed to conceal from the United States authorities that the
flight path had been changed, and probably because it was known
that the United States Air Traffic Control would lodge an objection
to the new flight path.
(f) I have reviewed the evidence in support of the allegation that
the Navigation Section believed, by reason of a mistaken verbal
communication, that the altered McMurdo waypoint only involved a
change of 2.1 nautical miles. I am obliged to say that I do not
accept that explanation. There were certainly grave deficiencies in
communication within the Navigation Section, but the high
professional skills of the Navigation Section's staff entirely
preclude the possibility of such an error. In my opinion this
explanation that the change in the waypoint was thought to be
minimal in terms of distance is a concocted story designed to
explain away the fundamental mistake, made by someone, in failing
to ensure that Captain Collins was notified that his aircraft was
now programmed to fly on a collision course with Mt. Erebus.
These paragraphs are attacked on the grounds, in short, that the members
of the navigation section said to be adversely affected by
them--according to the applicants, Mr R. Brown as regards (e) and Messrs
Amies, Brown, Hewitt and Lawton as regards (f)--were not given a fair
opportunity of answering the findings or allegations.
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