from one who wishes to denigrate Captain Collins, and those who have the temerity to stand in his corner.
The following from "New Zealand Tragedies Aviation" compiled by John King.
"Because the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the cause of the disaster were limited in scope, being legally an opinion and not a statement of fact, they could not be appealed in legal terms, unlike the Office of Air Accidents Investigation report, which remains the sole official account-- and has never been officially challenged."
And that to me sums up the situation precisely.
No doubt it has been noted that the official accident report states the" probable cause", no one will ever know with any certainty what actually happened, not even Justice Mahon. The theory of sector whiteout that was put forward , which had never been experienced by any other aviator, or at least reported on, after many years of operations in the area by a number of Air Force aircraft.
If one looks at the ALPA web site one can see the size of Mt Erebus, how it is possible to hit that mountain, and be in legal flight conditions is difficult to perceive.