PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - ANZ Erebus crash 28 November 1979 - 34 years later.
Old 2nd Jan 2014, 01:22
  #43 (permalink)  
Fantome
 
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It is certainly an accident that will endure in the minds of many. It is too facile to say stop rehashing the past. There will be always aspects of TE901 that will fascinate and exercise the minds of those who have the time and interest to make a thorough study of it. The accessible material is vast. I do not think anyone should make critical comment who has not made their own review. Gordon Vette certainly made his own in depth study of every shred of evidence. His book 'Impact Erebus' was hailed as unbiased, intimate assessment of the key elements.

Whether you think Jim Collins was foolhardy in the last thirty minutes of the flight or not, he was at no time until the GPWS went off uncertain of what he believed his position to be. Furthermore, as Captain Vette tellingly wrote, drawing on firsthand knowledge, Captain Collins was an outstanding pilot without a shred of the gung-ho in his makeup.

Relevant here is the fact that some seem to forget that previous flights to the ice for sight-seeing had made early descents and that other captains had elected not to follow the strict letter of company SOPS, believing they had more than adequate safety margins.

TE901 was led into a trap, the complexities of which will be debated as long as there are those of us for whom air accident investigation holds a special interest.
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