Originally Posted by
chris lz
Vette describes walls of clouds rising above them on either side
Does he? I'll admit to not having seen that. It certainly doesn't correlate with his submissions to the inquiry. There was an overcast around Ross Island above them and a fog bank at the base of Erebus (which under most conditions would have been further out into the bay). The let-down was performed in the patchy cloud north of Ross Island.
Vette calls the view from the aircraft cockpit a "visual counterfeit" of the McMurdo Sound track. But how much so? I would think that any track where there is terrain to your left and to your right would have more than a minute posibility of being taken by a flight crew for what they think should be there.
Vette's submissions are here:
http://www.erebus.co.nz/Portals/4/Do...non.pdf#page=7
Lewis Bay on the left, McMurdo Sound on the right. Top images show how they would appear on a clear day, middle images with some overcast and the lower images with sector whiteout due to the weather conditions as they were on the day.
Given this, I'm wondering if "doesn't contradict what they expect to see" is really the equivalent of a positive identification.
It was the best they had given the information supplied.