Originally Posted by
reubee
Fair points. It is a pity his narrative wasn't recorded immediately when it would've been more accurate, rather than nearly 40 years after the event.
But your original point about no mention of the C-141 in the CVR transcript is indeed puzzling. The descent to 5000 feet is in the transcript which starts at top of descent 140 miles out of McMurdo.
From Lieutenant Knock's recent interview posted earlier:
Knock recounts the scene on the Starlifter in the moments before the crash. "We called them [Flight 901], we got a hold of them and we were talking with them, saying 'how was it?' They said 'well we're here now and we're flying, but it's overcast over the area'. So our guys go: 'Where are you located?' They gave me a position which I plotted and they said they were descending to 5000 feet. Which made my heart stop, because I stopped and I went 'they're pretty close to Erebus.' I said 'call them back, call them back now'. What I realised, they were headed straight for the mountain, going down. I said 'they're headed towards the mountain and they're descending. There's no way they're going to make it'.
Was this conversation about position on an unrecorded second HF radio? Or was the memory of events four decades later faulty or perhaps somewhat embellished?
Last edited by Airbubba; 28th Nov 2019 at 21:35.