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
At the conclusion of the evidence counsel for the airline invited
counsel assisting the Commission to inform him what were the main issues
upon which closing submissions were requested. However the extended
written answer to that enquiry includes no suggestion whatever that the
conduct of airline witnesses or the post-accident conduct of the
employees was in issue. And the Commissioner himself said this in
paragraph 375 about the airline's submissions:
"... counsel for the airline adopted, in the course of their
detailed and exemplary final submissions, the very proper course of
not attributing blame to any specific quarter but leaving it to me
to assemble such contributing causes as I thought the evidence had
revealed."
In that regard some of the statements which were made on behalf of the
airline are not unimportant. At one point counsel said--
"By now it should be apparent to the smallest mind that the Company
has not espoused, and does not espouse, a proposition that the
accident can be contributed to a sole cause, let alone a sole cause
of pilot error. If from the evidence adduced, there emerges or is
implicit a criticism of the Company's flight crew, that criticism
has been moderate, informed and responsible."
And in the same context--
"I would, with respect, also remind Your Honour that in the very
nature of these proceedings there has not been an opportunity for a
formal opening where one might have expected just that. But I would
further suggest, Sir, that the evidence advanced by the Company,
which has been in an attempt to bring every witness who can
contribute something towards the causal factors and everything else
has been done, not selectively, and there have been witnesses who
have plainly, unequivocally, acknowledged their fault, their error.
There has not in any way been a parade of witnesses all seeking to
criticize the flight crew and thus, as it were, exonerate
themselves. There has been an endeavour, without selection, to
reveal all the evidence to reveal all the documents ...".
This statement by senior counsel for the airline as to the manner in
which he had attempted to handle his responsibilities should be enough
to answer the complaint in the Appendix that "The management of the
airline _instructed its counsel_ to deny every allegation of fault, and
to counter-attack by ascribing total culpability to the air crew". The
tribute the Commissioner paid counsel in paragraph 375 (the same counsel
appeared in this Court for the applicants) is not altogether consistent
with those last remarks. In any event the appendix continues--
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