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
As a further sample of the kind of material that might have been
provided by the criticized officers had they been given the opportunity
we were referred to a signed statement by Captain Crosbie forwarded to
the police (who by then were investigating the allegations of
conspiracy) on 5th May 1981. In the statement he has said after he had
given evidence before the Inquiry he recalled that because of the poor
condition of the notebook and severely damaged paper inside it and
"rather than present this to Mrs Collins" he had disposed of the pages
himself. Then having cleaned the cover he dried it in the sun and
returned it to Mrs Collins. It would seem to be an understandable
reaction although once again the effect this kind of material might have
had if it had been put forward is not for us to assess. In any event,
concerning this matter the Commissioner said in paragraph 352--
"As to the ring-binder notebook, it had been returned to Mrs
Collins by an employee of the airline, but all the pages of the
notebook were missing. _Captain Gemmell_ was asked about this in
evidence. He suggested that the pages might have been removed
because they had been damaged by kerosene. However, the ring-binder
notebook itself, which was produced at the hearing, was entirely
undamaged." (Emphasis added.)
It is clear that the Commissioner has wrongly attributed the explanation
given by Captain Crosbie concerning the removal of missing pages to
Captain Gemmell. The latter was never questioned at all about possible
reasons for the missing pages. The fifth and sixth respondents have
formally acknowledged that the reference to Captain Gemmell in that
paragraph is wrong.
Contents of Flight Bags
It has been explained that the Commissioner was satisfied that Captain
Collins had used the New Zealand Atlas to plot the last leg of the
flight path from Cape Hallett to McMurdo and may have used a chart of
his own for the same purpose. In addition there were his briefing
documents and those received by First Officer Cassin. Those received by
the latter have been discussed. The Commissioner held that they had not
been taken aboard the aircraft. But he was concerned with whatever else
may have been carried onto the DC10 by First Officer Cassin in his
flight bag; and about the contents of Captain Collin's flight bag which
he believed would include the atlas and briefing documents. In fact the
only evidence concerning the possible survival of the first officer's
flight bag, let alone its contents, was a name-tag which finally reached
Mrs Cassin through Captain Crosbie, the welfare representative. Since
there is no description of the contents and it has been held that the
briefing material was left behind anyway, the fate of the bag itself
would seem to be immaterial.
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