krypton_john
29th Sep 2010, 00:57
Nice to see some recognition, albeit late.
Erebus recovery pilot honoured - americas - world | Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4175308/Erebus-recovery-pilot-honoured)
An American helicopter pilot who flew the battered bodies off Antarctica’s Mt Erebus after the 1979 Air New Zealand crash has vividly recalled how it changed his life now he has been given a medal for his role.
Dan Ellison was a US Navy helicopter pilot at McMurdo Sound on November 28, 1979, when the Air New Zealand DC10 hit the mountain, killing all 257 people aboard.
Now living in Montana, he told the Helena Independent Record how he sat in the mess hall afterward, staring down at his food grappling with the enormity of the situation he faced.
"This was a bigger event than I’d ever been associated with," he said.
Ellison’s squadron was the only one that had helicopters in the area and the experience necessary to navigate rapidly changing conditions while working atop a steep slope.
That meant he and his fellow crewmembers quickly found themselves reprioritizing the science missions that had been their focus, preparing to remove the victims from the wreckage.
It was, Ellison said, the hardest mission he faced.
"It was a national disaster for the country of New Zealand and that wasn’t lost on us that were participating in it," he said.
"And so we probably pushed the edge of the envelope a little bit as far as crew rest and doing things because we wanted to do everything that we could do to make the recovery effort successful."
The day the Air New Zealand plane crashed, Ellison was the squadron duty officer in charge of coordinating flight schedules, providing logistics and manning the phones and radio.
He was aware of the action unfolding somewhere in the lands outside the station — that the sightseeing plane was missing, that it was assumed to have gone down.
A temporary hub was set up at Williams Airfield to house the bodies until they could be transported to New Zealand for identification.
Ellison’s squadron designated three of the seven helicopters available for the recovery effort.
It was a 30- to 40-minute flight out to the crash site from the station, but it took about twice the time to return when carrying an external load.
The six crews worked for two weeks using a “starboard” rotation — 12 hours on the field and 12 hours off.
That time of year in Antarctica, the sun never sets.
"So there wasn’t actual night the way we know night," Ellison said. "It was just time on the clock. But it was daylight and we could see and the operation needed to continue."
It was hard work, logistically and emotionally. Ellison recalls the moments when people at the station tried to ask him for details about what it was like out at the crash site, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it.
"I know I was rude to people and distant and closed in," he said. "It was a very difficult time."
The last day of the mission, he flew a large wooden cross to the site for a memorial service. People of all religions held ceremonies out there, he said.
"I was grateful to be of assistance to the people of New Zealand in their time of need," he said.
"That’s just the way I started looking at that and thinking, 'I’m glad to be here and to do one little bit of something that’s going to help someone. At least they get to have a funeral for their aunt or their brother or their mom.'"
He was nearly 30 years removed from the experience when he got the phone call last year.
It was from one of the pilots he’d flown with in Antarctica, who informed Ellison that the New Zealand government was looking for him.
At the time, Ellison was in the midst of his campaign for the city commission seat and had just spent the day making appearances. He’d been planning to update his website, Facebook and Twitter accounts after he finished dinner.
"I didn’t say it, but I thought, 'They must not be trying very hard,'" he joked.
Ellison was given a number to call. He sent in the requested log books and documentation, then found out he’d been approved for the medal. After that, nothing happened. There was a lot of turnover in the New Zealand offices, Ellison said, adding that his medal was not a high priority.
More than three decades later after the Erebus disaster, Ellison has been awarded the New Zealand Special Service Medal.
New Zealand has issued three variants of the Special Service Medal since its creation in 2002: Nuclear Testing, Asian Tsunami and Erebus. The Erebus variant is given to people who were involved in the body recovery, crash investigation or victim identification phases of the Flight 901 mission, known as Operation Overdue.
Around 40 people in the United States qualify to receive the honor and around 10 have been located, Ellison said.
Ellison received his medal last month, in an award ceremony in Bozeman with New Zealand Ambassador Mike Moore and Sen. Max Baucus.
Ellison came with his wife, his parents and his close friends — those people he’d thought about during the long, hard days that had forced him from taking anything for granted.
Erebus recovery pilot honoured - americas - world | Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4175308/Erebus-recovery-pilot-honoured)
An American helicopter pilot who flew the battered bodies off Antarctica’s Mt Erebus after the 1979 Air New Zealand crash has vividly recalled how it changed his life now he has been given a medal for his role.
Dan Ellison was a US Navy helicopter pilot at McMurdo Sound on November 28, 1979, when the Air New Zealand DC10 hit the mountain, killing all 257 people aboard.
Now living in Montana, he told the Helena Independent Record how he sat in the mess hall afterward, staring down at his food grappling with the enormity of the situation he faced.
"This was a bigger event than I’d ever been associated with," he said.
Ellison’s squadron was the only one that had helicopters in the area and the experience necessary to navigate rapidly changing conditions while working atop a steep slope.
That meant he and his fellow crewmembers quickly found themselves reprioritizing the science missions that had been their focus, preparing to remove the victims from the wreckage.
It was, Ellison said, the hardest mission he faced.
"It was a national disaster for the country of New Zealand and that wasn’t lost on us that were participating in it," he said.
"And so we probably pushed the edge of the envelope a little bit as far as crew rest and doing things because we wanted to do everything that we could do to make the recovery effort successful."
The day the Air New Zealand plane crashed, Ellison was the squadron duty officer in charge of coordinating flight schedules, providing logistics and manning the phones and radio.
He was aware of the action unfolding somewhere in the lands outside the station — that the sightseeing plane was missing, that it was assumed to have gone down.
A temporary hub was set up at Williams Airfield to house the bodies until they could be transported to New Zealand for identification.
Ellison’s squadron designated three of the seven helicopters available for the recovery effort.
It was a 30- to 40-minute flight out to the crash site from the station, but it took about twice the time to return when carrying an external load.
The six crews worked for two weeks using a “starboard” rotation — 12 hours on the field and 12 hours off.
That time of year in Antarctica, the sun never sets.
"So there wasn’t actual night the way we know night," Ellison said. "It was just time on the clock. But it was daylight and we could see and the operation needed to continue."
It was hard work, logistically and emotionally. Ellison recalls the moments when people at the station tried to ask him for details about what it was like out at the crash site, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it.
"I know I was rude to people and distant and closed in," he said. "It was a very difficult time."
The last day of the mission, he flew a large wooden cross to the site for a memorial service. People of all religions held ceremonies out there, he said.
"I was grateful to be of assistance to the people of New Zealand in their time of need," he said.
"That’s just the way I started looking at that and thinking, 'I’m glad to be here and to do one little bit of something that’s going to help someone. At least they get to have a funeral for their aunt or their brother or their mom.'"
He was nearly 30 years removed from the experience when he got the phone call last year.
It was from one of the pilots he’d flown with in Antarctica, who informed Ellison that the New Zealand government was looking for him.
At the time, Ellison was in the midst of his campaign for the city commission seat and had just spent the day making appearances. He’d been planning to update his website, Facebook and Twitter accounts after he finished dinner.
"I didn’t say it, but I thought, 'They must not be trying very hard,'" he joked.
Ellison was given a number to call. He sent in the requested log books and documentation, then found out he’d been approved for the medal. After that, nothing happened. There was a lot of turnover in the New Zealand offices, Ellison said, adding that his medal was not a high priority.
More than three decades later after the Erebus disaster, Ellison has been awarded the New Zealand Special Service Medal.
New Zealand has issued three variants of the Special Service Medal since its creation in 2002: Nuclear Testing, Asian Tsunami and Erebus. The Erebus variant is given to people who were involved in the body recovery, crash investigation or victim identification phases of the Flight 901 mission, known as Operation Overdue.
Around 40 people in the United States qualify to receive the honor and around 10 have been located, Ellison said.
Ellison received his medal last month, in an award ceremony in Bozeman with New Zealand Ambassador Mike Moore and Sen. Max Baucus.
Ellison came with his wife, his parents and his close friends — those people he’d thought about during the long, hard days that had forced him from taking anything for granted.