The company has been hauled over the coals many times for lack of foresight when these trips were planned, however, one problem that had been covered was whiteout. Again from John King publication "New Zealand Tragedies, Aviation".
"We didn't put anything in the briefing about whiteout, but we discussed it with Operation Deep Freeze and went into quite some depth. At 6,000ft there was no whiteout"
That was part of Captain Gemmel, ("chief pilot.) statement.
"But the 6,000ft aspect was more than a company order, to be broken by pilots if they felt like it and the weather was fine. It was a strict CAD rule, part of the original conditions for the airlines scenic flights to Antarctica as stipulated by by the Director of Civil Aviation under regulation 136(3) giving vertical clearance from Mt Aurora, the highest point in the sightseeing manoeuvring area".
The impact point was at 1,500ft. How could Justice Mahon come to the conclusion that the crew were blameless? A problem with that view that is widely held now is
"Because the findings of the Royal Commission on the cause of the disaster were limited in scope, being legally an opinion and not a statement of fact, they could not be appealed in legal terms, unlike to Office of Air Accidents Investigation report, which remains the sole official account---and has never officially been challenged"