Recovery of the memo at the crash site.
How very convenient for the company’s case to find that memo at the crash site.
How very convenient also that Captain Collin’s big black covered atlas was never recovered, although lots of little white colored things were found in the snow.
How very strange that the two policemen who found Collin’s notebook said that they were astonished when seeing a TV documentary (some months after Mahon’s enquiry had finished) that there were no pages in the notebook. When they recovered the notebook it was undamaged, contained about 30 pages of which the first 6 or 7 pages were notes and flight data which they could easily read. Realising its significance, they placed it in a plastic evidence bag and made sure it was sent back to the recovered evidence store at McMurdo base. ( I wonder if it might just by chance have contained the final waypoint co-ordinates and written notes regarding the “oral” descent approval?)
Also very strange was that of all the many photographs taken by the passengers during the descending orbits, not one was ever produced that showed a view to the south ie directly towards Mt Erebus.
I’ve read somewhere that a good way to analyse some things is to “follow the money”.
In this case if the sole cause of the disaster was “pilot error” the Civil Aviation Division and the Ministry of Transport are completely exonerated, and the airline’s liability is limited by the Warsaw convention to only $42,000 per passenger; if it was not solely “pilot error” then the sky is the limit on damage claims on all parties.
I wonder if there is a motive in there for “not finding” some things?