Erebus Disaster: Lookout - Part 5

[Richardhedditch261]

Flt. Lt. Byron Cowmeadow was on vacation leave in November, 1979. Had he, New Zealand's best commuter flight pilot, been on duty at that time, then this disaster may not ever have hjappened. And it completely defies explanation that New Zeland's most illustrious QC, Horace Sheepfarmer, wa NOT appointed to preside over the post-mortem and the inquest.

[MerleOberon]

The Air New Zealand officials could have a great future in American politics..

[Lindahl]

There are many to blame but to fly so low in such dangerous terrain is pretty recless. As a captain you always carry the ultimate responsibility. Anyway a very tragic event.Rip

[MrCriticOfAll]

That was so sad.I remember it like it was yesterday.The Turkish DC-10 fell apart and everyone thought the same had happened to this one.I was 15 at the time and still remembered the outcome of this trial.Its easy to blame someone who cant defend themselves.R.I.P passengers and crew.Thank you for the upload.

[RoadCone411]

The judge scratching his nose with the binder (belonging to the dead pilot) at 3:29 seems very odd to me, anybody else catch that? RIP to all the victims, what a tragic crash with a disgusting cover-up.

[MrCriticOfAll]

@RoadCone411 He was hiding a yawn it looked like.

[outrigger777]

Not being on standard airways, they had no way of knowing where they were in relation to high terrain. They needed an area/plotting chart where they would manually plot their lat/long points from the flight plan. This would have caught the ANZ error. Having an area/plotting chart when off-airways should have been standard procedure, especially when flying low in an area of high terrain. This was a dicy operation even without the ANZ error.

[campgalley]

there's the book I referred to

[rogerthesurf]

THis crash is no different from most others. Every crash/disaster is caused by a chain of events. Yes the navigation staff were to blame, yes the admin was to blame for not training the air crew, yes the McMurdo Ground Controller was to blame and yes the flight crew was to blame. Any one of the employees or relevant employees of these departments could have averted this crash by adhering to standard and proper procedures and checks.

[WolYou]

There is no "computer-based" errors. There is only human-based errors.

[lloydgar01]

@WolYou that's what i'm thinking too. the values were entered into the computer by a person: therefore, all errors are human-based.

[fungie5]

I can't believe I've never heard of this disaster. This was really tragic, particularly since it was caused by people who weren't even on the plane.