As Prospector has pointed out on numerous occasions, as did Sir Rochford Hughes, it was appalling that Air NZ allowed NZAPLA to turn the whole operation into a junket for senior captains. (Even the stand-by captains had not been down to the ice before.)
So f*cking what? When you're being paid three times the salary of the country's Prime Minister, there should, surely, be an expectation that the most basic principles of airmanship will be complied with. For example, you won't try to take off with the flaps in. Captain Collins did not make that basic mistake when getting the aircraft to cruising altitide, but he made numerous basic mistakes before he smashed the aircraft into that mountain.
Vette can crap on with his 'there but for the grace of God' nonsense, but I don't believe him. If Captain Alwyn Gordon Vette had been PIC of TE901, the passengers would have had an enjoyable tour of the Dry Valleys and would have returned alive.