Originally Posted by
ampan
Ttere's no mystery at all about this accident. It was another example of controlled flight into terrain. As with most of these accidents, the main cause was pilot error. That INS was also a cause, but only a secondary cause. A failure of one navigational aid should not cause a crash.
The real mystery is how an obvious case of pilot error, once put through the New Zealand legal system, was turned into a finding that the Captain was blameless. Is anyone game enough or stupid enough to agree with that?
Because Mahon found that the Air NZ Navigation section changed the flight plan but didn't specifically tell the operating crew.
Captain Collins spent sometime plotting the previous tracks, which led past Erebus instead of right into it, so that he had a mental picture of where he would be.
To my mind Brick Lucas should not have been removed to the cabin to make room for Peter Mulgrew whose presence on the flight deck must have been a distraction.
Remember that Mahon's "orchestrated litany of lies" was directed at Air NZ management, not at anyone else.