I've always wondered who the conductor of the orchestra was supposed to be. Rob Muldoon?
Apart from the union and its lawyers, the various authors who wrote books in support were nearly as slimey. Mahon’s book was pathetic. Paul Holme’s efforts did his case more harm than good. All Vette demonstrated was how highly he regarded himself. StuartMacFarlane’s mad ravings (described as “Editorial Comment”) should have been enough to persuade two doctors to sign the necessary committal papers – but in his more lucid moments, MacFarlane demonstrated that he too was capable of a dirty trick or two. At page 351 he gave the reader the following quote from First Officer Gabriel (who attended the same briefing as Captain Collins), to show that the waypoint conveyed at the briefing was not at McMurdo Station but was many miles out to the west:
“In relation to the McMurdo waypoint for your own flight down there, did you have any briefing as to where that was geographically priorto the flight?”
“Roughly I had a look at the topographical map we were given at the briefing - the inset to NZMS135. I just roughly established where we were going. I thought it would be near enough to … 50 miles to the [west] of McMurdoStation.”
“Did you do that by roughly plotting the co-ordinates on that topographical map?”
“Really just be establishing in my own mind where the position was. I can’t say I actually recorded the co-ordinate from the flightplan … but looking at the map and from what I could remember of the co-ordinates and looking at the topographical map I thought in a rough sort of way we were going to about that position there, so it wasn’t specifically plotted.”
The quote ends there. Page 1712 of the transcript shows the very next question – and answer:
“Are you speaking now of what you did and thought at the time of the briefing on 9 November?”
“No, It was after the briefing.”