What was said about the waypoint at the briefing?
flatfootsam: The suicide argument is silly lawyer’s stuff. It’s not a choice between ‘blameless’ and ‘suicidal’. Positioned between the two is ‘negligent’. If the information given to the captain about the final waypoint was consistent, then it could be argued that he was blameless. But it was not. At the briefing, the captain was told that the track went to McMurdo Station. This is an undisputable fact: The briefing included an audiovisual presentation. The audio part was read out, from a script, which was as follows:
ALL FLIGHTS FOR THE ANTARTIC REGION WILL BE PLANNED TO DEPART AUCKLAND WITH FULL TANKS. AS AN APPROXIMATE FIGURE THIS WILL BE 109 TONNES OF FUEL. BASED ON AN ANTICIPATED ZERO FUEL WEIGHT OF 140 TONNES. A TAKE-OFF WEIGHT OF ALMOST 250 TONNES CAN BE ANTICIPATED FOR ALL FLIGHTS.
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TWO ROUTES ARE AVAILABLE. FLIGHT DESPATCH HAS BEEN INSTRUCTED TO PREPARE TWO FLIGHT PLANS REGARDLESS OF THE FLIGHT FORECAST. BOTH ROUTES FOLLOW COMMON TRACKS TO CAPE HALLETT, THEN DEPENDENT ON WEATHER CONDITIONS EXISTING IN THE REGION ONE ROUTE PROCEEDS TO MCMURDO AND RETURN WHILST THE SECONDARY ROUTE IS VIA THE NINNIS GLACIER AND THE SOUTH MAGNETIC POLE. IT IS ANTICIPATED WIND FORECAST WILL BE SCANT, HOWEVER A COMPONENT OF MINUS 10 – 15 KNOTS CAN BE EXPECTED.
HEMISPHERICAL RULES WILL APPLY REGARDING FLIGHT LEVELS EN ROUTE – REFER TO THE RNC4 CHART – BUT NO PROBLEMS ARE ANTICIPATED WITH DRIFT CLIMB PROCEDURES AND BLOCK CLEARANCE ALTITUDES. REMEMBER THE LIMITING FACTOR WILL BE THE TIME SPENT IN THE MCMURDO OR SOUTH MAGNETIC POLE AREA AS THE FUEL REQUIREMENT FOR THE RETURN MUST BE BASED ON THE DEPRESSURISED LEVEL. DETAILS OF THE ROUTE INFORMATION WILL BE SUPPLIED IN A SEPARATE HAND-OUT.
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A STANDARD ROUTE DEFINITION WILL BE USED EMPLOYING THE FROM-VIA-TO FORMAT. ENTER NZAA THEN 78S/167E THIS BEING THE APPROXIMATE CO-ORDINATES OF MCMURDO STATION. NZCH IS ENTERED IN THE NORMAL WAY. NEW PLYMOUTH AND NELSON MAY BE ENTERED AS STANDARD IDENTS HOWEVER ALL OTHER ENTRIES WILL BE REQUIRED TO BE BY LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE. REMEMBER FLIGHT PLAN OVERFLOW WILL OCCUR WITH MORE THAN 15 LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE ENTRIES. NO DIFFICULTY WILL BE EXPERIENCED IN ASSEMBLING THE ROUTE TO BEYOND MCMURDO SOUND IN THE FIRST INSTANCE.
THE DIVERSION ROUTE NZCH-NZAA WOULD BE ACCESSED FROM THE AVAILABLE AIRWAYS FROM CH.
MCMURDO TACAN IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE TAPE THEREFORE NO UPDATE WILL OCCUR BEYOND THE RANGE OF THE CHRISTCHURCH VOR/DME.
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