What Caused the Erebus Disaster?
As humans, we like to put the blame on one particular party or person, and be done with it, however in the case of an air crash with 257 casualties, a conclusion cannot so easily be drawn.
Judge Pete Mahon who wrote the Mahon report on what caused the disaster, once said, “The occurrence of any accident was normally due to the existence of a variety of factors”. (1)
The Erebus Disaster was the result of many mistakes from pilots, ground crew, and Air New Zealand, as the disaster would not have occurred if any one of these mistakes hadn’t happened.
Judge Pete Mahon who wrote the Mahon report on what caused the disaster, once said, “The occurrence of any accident was normally due to the existence of a variety of factors”. (1)
The Erebus Disaster was the result of many mistakes from pilots, ground crew, and Air New Zealand, as the disaster would not have occurred if any one of these mistakes hadn’t happened.
Change to Coordinates of Flight Plan Without Notifying Crew
With over 20 years of experience under his belt, Captain Jim Collins, was an experienced pilot, along with his co-pilot Greg Cassin, who both flew aircrafts for Air New Zealand. The two attended a standard briefing session 3 weeks before Flight 901 crashed into Erebus, where they were handed out printouts of previous flights to Antarctica. Though the 2 pilots had never flown the sightseeing flight to Antarctica, it was known to be a straightforward flight- no glitches expected. On that fateful morning of the 28th of November, Pilots Collins and Cassin entered in the longitude and latitude co-ordinates for the flight, among which were 2 coordinates which had been altered by the Navigation Officer at Air New Zealand, which would change the flight path 45 kilometres to the east. Both the pilots and rest of the crew were unaware of the changes to the flight plan, and therefore ignorant to the fact that they were flying on a collision course with Mt Erebus instead of flying over McMurdo Sound like previous flights. This mindset contributed to their downfall because when pilots lost a lot of visual reference due to a whiteout, no immediate action was done to improve the pilots visual bearings. This was because crew did not believe they were in such close proximity to the mountain, but instead thought they were flying safely over McMurdo Sound.
Dropping to 1500 ft. |
Another factor that could’ve contributed to the crash of Flight 901 was the decision to allow the aircraft to descend to a low 1500 ft, so passengers could get a clearer view of the scenery. Air safety regulations at the time clearly stated that aircrafts were specifically not allowed to descend lower than 6000ft in good conditions. However, passengers expected views that could only be given at lower heights shown in photos of previous Antarctic sightseeing flights and advertised in magazines for the flight. After getting permission from the McMurdo Station Air Traffic Control at around 12.30pm, Collins descended to 1500ft. Both him and the McMurdo Station thought a lower descend into McMurdo sound wouldn’t do any harm, allowing passengers the photos and scenery they so desperately sought after. However the aircraft was not flying over open water, but getting closer and closer to Mt Erebus, until at 12.49 a Ground Proximity Warning went off too late as they then collided with the mountain.
After the crash, there was much controversy on the decision to drop to lower altitudes, as keeping to the regulation altitudes would have allowed the aircraft to fly over Mt Erebus, avoiding the entire crash incident.
After the crash, there was much controversy on the decision to drop to lower altitudes, as keeping to the regulation altitudes would have allowed the aircraft to fly over Mt Erebus, avoiding the entire crash incident.
Whiteout Conditions
Another cause under speculation was the “Whiteout” phenomenon that occurred, which is a weather condition that is frequent in polar regions where the white clouds and snow-covered ground are indistinguishable. This particular cause was due to an environmental factor, which in combination with many other factors caused Flight 901 to crash into Mt Erebus. Because this flight was their first flight to Antarctica for many of the crew, including Pilot Jim Collins, most of the crew were unfamiliar with this phenomenon, as it was common only in polar areas, which the crew were not accustomed to flying in. This inexperience inevitably led to a lack of training and knowledge of what to do in whiteout conditions, as crew were not alarmed enough about the whiteout to question their position. Even though the crew were oblivious to their location near the mountain, a change in position to get out of this whiteout could have caused them to fly higher, saving their lives.
This environmental factor played a big part in causing the crash, as it added to the confusion, disorientation and panic in the moments before the aircraft crashed into Mt Erebus. |
(1)- http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/erebus-inquiry-peter-mahon (Ministry for Culture and Heritage) updated 20/12/12, visited 7/4/13