The first material difference was that the previous crews who went low on the basis that they were VMC had blue skies and were, in fact, VMC. They could see where they were going. They were not pretending.
how do you know they had blue skies and were in fact VMC? Evidence is that crews were observed operating in and out of cloud, though telling McMurdo they were VMC. What is your definition of VMC?
Collins on this flight took that deviance to a whole new level. There was no comparable descent in the history of Air NZ's Antarctic flights
An extremely bold statement. We have no idea what previous flights did, other than extremely few complied with SOP. Some certainly didn't comply with VMC rules. The fact that they arrived home is not testament to what did, or what didn't, transpire in the conduct of those flights. We know that some certainly didn't operate VMC, though claiming they were
Previous crews were told that the waypoint was at McMurdo Station when in fact, it was 27 miles west. So it cannot be said that misinformation about the waypoint (and therefore the nav track) was the difference. All those who came back over the previous two years were also misinformed, albeit in a different way.
All that does is heighten the fact that that none of those crews had any idea where the waypoint resided. The question to be asked if the crews were aware of the waypoint location, why did none ask why is it called McMurdo, when in fact it was not. And what about the missing leg from the false McMurdo to the real McMurdo for the company cloudbreak. Collins didn't ask either, even though he had plotted the false McMurdo.
It doesn't make said deviance right, or acceptable practice, or remove responsibility..
Well said
PH, the responsibility lay at all levels of the airline, and the regulator. They were all children out for a frolic not knowing what they were doing.