Pharknose,
No doubt you will have noted that in my original post I stated that people had made there minds up long ago as to the cause. One either went along with the findings of Mahon or Chippendale. Mahon was a judge who never had any aeronautical experience and whose findings were overturned by an appeal court and the Privy Council.
Chippendale was a very experienced pilot, and accident investigator, agreeing with his findings were a number of highly qualified aviation experienced people, including Capt Ellis.
What has not been mentioned thus far is the findings of Judge Harold H. Greene of the US District Court in Washington DC when an attempt was made to sue the United States Government for alledged failure of the US Navy air traffic controllers at McMurdo to warn flight TE901 that it was in danger.
Judge Greene said the operational crew of Flight TE901 acted unreasonably in several respects, including not plotting their actual position from the AINS and descending below 16000ft, contrary to both prudent airmanship and Air New Zealand policy, without first ascertaining what was there or following the other requirements for such descent.
"It is clearly established, when the pilot told Mac Centre that he wished to descend VMC he effectively informed the controllers that he could see where he was going, is so doing he took sole responsibility for separating the airplane from other aircraft and terrain'
There was more along the same lines but this court concluded that the disaster was the fault of both Air New Zealand and the flight crew.
This would appear to be the view of many, shared responsibility, but when the view of Mahon is quoted as being the definitive opinion, and it was the fault of the company only, then I feel the need, as quoted in my first post on this thread, to put forward the fact that there are many who believe he got it wrong.
Prospector