Originally Posted by Dreamland
This type of operation being accomplished by airline crews is crazy IMHO, that's what real tour operators are for.
A very valid point in a bigger picture frame. As I see it ANZ (then) were over confident and arrogant with their stance on Antarctic flights. Thus being fairly incompetent for such an undertaking. I guess this reflects on the attitudes of their leadership at that time as it all seemed a bit disorganized and poorly documented.
To make matters worse the people who should have kept them honest, the MOT CAD, seemed to be conveniently myopic as to what ANZ were up to.
They also failed the travelling public of NZ miserably by not ensuring that those flights were done by an appropriately qualified and skilled operator.
It bit them all in the arse very hard..!
Of course Chippendale wouldn't have considered any of this as he worked for CAD and old shredder was his personal adviser. Whether he acted in a biased fashion or was just way out of his depth is a debatable point.
Mahon"s accusations of "an orchestrated litany of lies" were found to be outside the scope of the commission by the court of appeal and subsequently the Privy Council.
However what is commonly overlooked in Erebus debates today is that the Royal Commissions findings on the cause of the accident still stand today.
So here we have (1) The findings (using an investigative process way ahead of its time) of a Royal Comission of inquiry that still stands, or (2) Chippendales much more simplistic report that really only should have formed part of the inquiry.
By today's standard, Mahons investigation and finding would appear completely normal as Chippendales now seems antiquated and obsolete.
Maybe that is why there are those here that would like to let sleeping dogs lie.