Captain Fathom, no, no knowledge of who Ampan is. But I believe Bob Thomson with his experience of Antarctic travel summed up the situation very well. Here are some of his qualifications to make these statements.
But Thomson had more experience in the area than almost anybody else. During his 75 trips to Antarctica in the course of a long career with the DSIR Antarctic division, at least 50 had been on the flight deck of aircraft approaching from the north, observing the ice edge and conditions. He was the commentator on Air New Zealand's inaugural flight back in February 1977, with Captain Ian Gemmel in command, and also on the last completed trip before flight 901 on 28 November.
In fact he was originally scheduled to fly on the fatal flight, but had to change his plans because of an expected visit to Scott Base by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in early December 1979. Instead mountaineer Peter Mulgrew took his place--and was on the flight deck nof ZK-NZP at the moment of impact.
Has Bob Thomson ever felt uneasy that, but for a twist in fate, he might have died that day?Not at all. I always insisted on a complete circuit of Ross Island before letting down below 17,000ft, that way I could get an idea of the complete situation and what the weather was like, where any clouds were.
" There is traditionally bad weather in Lewis Bay where they crashed" says Thomson
The captain didn't give attention to problems that he might have around there. These people were taking a Sunday drive. When I heard the transcript of the CVR I fell out of my chair. Most of the times Mulgrew had been there he'd gone in by sea, and all his travel from Scott Base was to the South. Hardly anybody ever went into Lewis Bay.
Had they orbited Ross Island they would have seen the cloud. If a pilot is unsure he always goes up, never down. The co-pilot of Flight 901 never opened his flight bag to look up the coordinates. I always had a chart in the cockpit and checked the latitude and longtitude readout, but the crew of the fatal flight never referred to it" . That was taken from John King Publication New Zealand Tragedies Aviation
That to me, from someone with that level of experience in AntArctic operations, and in the flight deck, even if not as operating crew, gives a far more accurate picture of events than Mahon version.