Desert Dingo,
I prefer to take the findings of a qualified, experienced, well trained aircraft Accident Investigator, rather than some legal eagles OPINIONS. I mean if I want to paint my house I dont hire an electrician.
I have read the Erebus Papers some years ago, and I must agree with what is printed in John Kings "New Zealand Tragedies, Aviation.
"Its author was Stuart Macfarlane, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Auckland, who roundly criticized the two highest Courts in th New Zealand legal system, First he pointed out the family connections between two of the Court of Appeal judges and Air New Zealand staff and counsel. Then he made the bizarre accusation, for somebody at his level in the law system, that the Privy Council was, at best, somewhat economical with the truth and made its judgement purely to clear the establishment, which included Ron Chippendale, the government and the government airline of any blame.
The cumulative effect is that the Privy Council constructed a fantasy world which bore no relation to the truth."
If that is the opinion a senior law lecturer has of his peers in the Highest court in the land, than his opinion on anything to do with Erebus is surely to be taken with a shovel full of salt.