Brian,
Prospector is pushing the company argument that was convincingly demolished by the facts that came to light during the Royal Commission inquiry conducted by Justice Mahon.
151 (part)
…… But because the flight levels of 16000 feet and 6000 feet and the flight path over Mt Erebus still remained as part of the official approval of Civil Aviation Division as at 28 November 1979, both the airline and Civil Aviation Division immediately seized upon these official conditions as being the vital factor in the disaster. From the point of view of both organizations they could obtain, so they believed, absolution from their own numerous errors by merely ascribing the disaster to a failure by Captain Collins to observe a minimum flight level of 16000 feet …..
164 (d)
The prepared text of the briefing and the constant reference to minimum safe altitudes of 16000 feet and 6000 feet were verbally contradicted by Captain Wilson in the 1978 and 1979 flights by indicating to the crews that they were authorized to descend to any altitude approved by the United States Navy Air Traffic Controller, and it is significant to point out that at the time when the chief inspector signed and published his report, he had not been told by Captain Wilson, or by anyone else, that this specific authority was orally given to flight crews during the course of the audio-visual presentations to which I have referred. Captain Wilson admitted this. (T. 1236)
Although the descent restrictions remained in force, the airline consistently disregarded them, although protesting total compliance with them at the enquiry.
Prospector asks
Why do you not also quote from Capt M. Hawkins, who stated "I was in no doubt at the briefing that the lower limit was 6000ft, the weather on my flight was perfect, with clear skies and 100 miles visibility. Ice tower asked me for a low run, but I kept to 6000 feet".
Captain Hawkins (and others) may have been telling fibs.
In the Auckland Star of 22 October 1977 an article appears with “At the controls Captain Hawkins brings the DC10 down to 200m over Scott and McMurdo Bases – well below the towering volcano Erebus belching smoke only 40 km. away.”
Now I know we all have a pretty poor opinion of media accuracy about aviation, and the journalist later admitted that he should have said 400m not 200m ( just a slight exaggeration – how surprising) but I expect he could tell the difference in flight at 400m (1300 ft) and 6000 feet.
There are numerous other examples of press reports, company newsletters and publicity brochures confirming that flights were regularly conducted below 6000 feet.
Significantly, Mr B Thompson, Superintendent of the D.S.I.R., had been on four flights and testified that he believed they had all flown below the MSA rules. One of these flights (8 November 1977) was under the command of Captain Johnson, Flight manager Line Operations, who then testified that he had descended to 3000 feet. This was a breach in the otherwise unified front of the management pilots that nobody ignored the MSA rules. Justice Mahon says (rather tongue-in-cheek, I think) that he does not wish to suggest that Captain Johnson felt obliged to admit breaking the unified front because it could be so easily proved that he had descended below 6000 feet.
This is the same Captain Johnson who wrote the memo Prospector relies on so much in his arguments.
So, there is incontrovertible evidence that flights were being regularly operated below 6000 feet and that the crews were specifically authorized to do so during the briefing.
Note that
this specific authority was orally given to flight crews during the course of the audio-visual presentations.
Orally.
This means that perhaps the only written record would be the notes taken by the pilots during the briefing.
Justice Mahon’s report shows that there were times when the company had control of documents recovered from the crash site, and he does not believe Captain Gemmel did not know about the changed waypoints when he had possession of those documents.
If you had a suspicious mind you might wonder why the only documents recovered at the crash scene and shown at the enquiry were ones that supported the company argument.
Why were there no pages left in Captain Collins’ otherwise undamaged ring-binder notebook?
What happened to the rest of the documents carried by Captain Collins on that flight?
Why did the company recover FO Cassin’s briefing notes, then they were never seen again?
Who was behind the burglaries?
Does “an organized litany of lies” apply here?
Believe in conspiracies and a cover-up? Who, me?
