From Bob Thomson in his "History of New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme 1965-88
.And the this taken from John King "New Zealand Tragedies, Aviation".
But Thomson had more experience on the area then almost anybody else. During his 75 trips to Antarctica in the course of his long career with the DSIR Antarctic Division, at least 50 had been on the flight deck of aircraft approaching from the North, observing the ice edge and conditions. He was commentator on Air New Zealands inaugural flight back in February 1977, with Captain Ian Gemmel in command, and also on the last completed trip before the Flight 901 on 28 November.
In fact, he was originally scheduled to fly on the fatal flight, but had to change his plans because of an expected visit to Scott Base by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in early December 1979. Instead mountaineer Peter Mulgrew took his place- and was on the flight deck at the moment of impact.
Has Bob Thomson felt uneasy that, but for a twist of fate, he might have died that day? "Not at all". I always insisted on a complete circuit of Ross Island before letting down below 17,000ft. That way I could get an idea of the complete situation and what the weather was like, and where any clouds were.
On each of Thomson's flights the captain turned to him for advice on the best sightseeing route around the area. Interpreting that as sharing responsibility for the flight, he found the idea of having to make quick decisions on behalf of 250 people too much, so his last flight would have been his final trip, even if Air New Zealand had kept them going.
"There's traditionally bad weather in Lewis Bay, where they crashed," says Thomson.
The captain didn't give attention to problems he might have around there. These people were taking a Sunday drive. When I heard the transcript of the CVR I fell out of my chair. Most of the times Mulgrew had been there he had gone in by sea, and all his travels from Scott Base was to the South. Hardly anyone ever went into Lewis Bay.
Had they orbited Ross Island they would have seen the cloud. If a pilot is unsure he always goes up, never down.The copilot on flight 901 never opened his flight bag to look up the co-ordinates. I always had a chart in the cockpit and checked the latitude and longitude readout. But the crew of the fatal flight never referred to it.
That was his take on the fatal flight.
As to the 6,000ft minimum, some captains never went below this. It apparently started when a flight was invited down by the local ATC to do a low level pass. Since when does an invite by an Air Traffic controller override CAA and company requirements?
Cazalet33, You say
Most of the navigational notes were made to disappear in the coverup by the Company.
That was well after the event, if they had of been taking the Lat/Long readouts and plotting them then surely the disaster would not have happened,
PapaHotel6 You say
It's up to the airline and CAA to say "request acknowledged ALPA, but get f**ked".
Of course, in this day and age that would likely occur, but at the time all this took place the demeanour of some of the people involved would have made it difficult.
I had heard that there was supposed to be an airline inspector from CAA onboard the flight, but due to family commitments he had to cancel, would this flight have been carried out the way it was if it was known an Airline Inspector was onboard?