Prospector, I'm afraid your post demonstrates your lack of understanding of whiteout.
Brian, please read what was written, of course many people are aware of whiteout, the point I made was that nobody had defined any such thing as sector whiteout, once again I quote from John King's publication.
Gordon Vette gave evidence in Washington expanding on his sector whiteout theory, but his suggestion that McMurdo should have realised the DC10 was in peril from whiteout was not taken seriously. Judge Greene
wrote
Since Gordon Vette was apparently the first person to have presented to experts in perceptual psychology and to the world at large the theory of SECTOR WHITEOUT with respect to an aircraft in level flight, the phenomenon was entirely unknown prior to the crash of Flight 901 and therefor by definition unfamiliar to the controllers at McMurdo on November 28, 1979. The Air Traffic controllers cannot be faulted for failing to predict that the flight crew would be unable to see the mountain on account of that phenomenon, particularly when neither its existence nor the possibility of its presence were ever mentioned to them.
How many trips did Gordon Vette do to McMurdo?, and yet he discovered a phenomenon that people with many years experience in that environment had never encountered?
This ground has been covered before in these threads but is still very relevant. The statements by Captain Derek Ellis in a letter to NZALPA.
Having read Gordon Vette's book, I can only conclude that something went very badly wrong at the Mahon hearing. I fully respect your duty to act as advocate for your members but I question, in this particular instance, was it all carried to far, with the result that the real causes were obscured and consequently, the wrong people blamed.
You will no doubt be aware of the qualifications and experience held by Captain Derek Ellis