What has really troubled me over the years though as a police officer, is the issue of pilot, Captain Jim Collins’, ring binder notebook which was located amongst the wreckage and handed to me on the site. It was intact and contained numerous pages of legible technical writing and figures that indicated they related to the flying of aircraft. We recognised that this could be of importance to any investigation into the crash, and I sealed and secured it in a bag before it was returned to McMurdo.
The ring binder was later produced in 1981 at the Commission of Inquiry into the disaster in an altered condition to how it was found, in that the pages were missing. It had earlier been returned to Mrs Collin's in this condition by an airline official. The reason why and how the pages came to be missing has never been satisfactorily explained or resolved.
G J Gilpin M.N.Z.M
Inspector, NZ Police
Wellington