" "Couldn't have picked a worse airline boss""
What a stupid misinformed statement to make, how many flights had been successfully completed to the ice before a captain thought he knew better than everybody who laid down all the requirements for a successful flight to the ice could be totally ignored, designed own descent procedure knowing that the weather at Mcmurdo was well below that required for a successful sight seeing flight and it is the bosses fault??
Quite an accurate summation of the boss, and the competence of the management he had beneath him. Most of those successful flights broke SOP's, the authority knew about it, the airline knew about it, and neither did anything to remedy the situation. They even used the fact that they didn't comply with SOP's as advertising material, all of NZ knew the standards being used re altitude applying via the papers and TV. That the flights were being run by a bunch of amateurs is signified by planning the flights directly over the top of Erebus. A point Chippendale should have asked, why didn't they plan via the RNC route? Discussion was had in briefing about descent below 6,000, so it's a bit odd saying 6,000 was a limit. Everything was all downhill from there.
All very factual, so why couldn't they see at 12500ft mountain that was only 27nm away
Compressor Stall has extensive experience flying in Antarctica, both jet and smaller aircraft used for commuting about the ice, so any thing he has to say you can take as gospel. Posters commenting, such as the quote, don't seem to understand the whiteout phenomena. As I've commented before, I sat in the cockpit of a 747 as we climbed from 16,000 through to on top of a overcast layer at 20,000, below the overcast the vis was unlimited, right around the world, VMC, yet you could see nothing but white in any direction. It's one of those things you have to experience to believe. I liken it to the reverse of a pitch black night, vis may be unlimited but you can't see anything. To see something you need contrast.