It includes blatant defiance of the rules set in place, untrained aircrew, CVR tampering, shredding of documents,
Let us just examine some of these facts.
Defiance of rules: The company provided the crew with an IFR plan to McMurdo, The IFR plan makes no mention of any descent, that is up to the discretion of the crew, taking into account all relevant details,ie weather conditions, traffic etc. The Company gave the crew a list of mandatory requirements to be met prior to descent below route MSA, FL160. It is established fact that the crew were well aware of these requirements, a copy of such was found amongst cockpit debris. Not one of those mandatory requirements were complied with prior to descent below route MSA.
So what party is guilty of blatant defiance of the rules????
Untrained aircrew: It would no doubt have suited the Company to have just one, or perhaps two crews assigned to carry out all these flights. It is most likely that this did not occur because NZALPA insisted that these "perk"flights be shared amongst their senior members. If this was not so then the aircrew operating these flights would have been exposed to the Antarctic experience that all other operators demanded before going down there as PIC. Perhaps the company could be at fault for not insisting on the experience requirements required by all other operators to the ice, and the NZCAA could also be faulted for the same reason. It could perhaps also be said in CAA's defence that they had nobody on staff with experience on heavy jets and relied on information supplied by NZALPA and Air NZ
CVR tampering: Ron Chippindale, and all the others had a very difficult task trying to get anything of value from the recordings prior to the descent, it was reported that there could have been up to eight people in the cockpit, all being recorded by one open microphone. To me that begs the question, what were all these people doing in the cockpit when critical decisions regarding unapproved descent procedures were being carried out? or is it, as is most likely, the decision was made by one man, the captain, without any discussion with the other crew members?
Shredding of documents: Whilst not very wise happened well after the accident occurred, so how could such action be in any way be part the cause of the accident? And if you read the official accident report compiled by the very well qualified Aircraft Accident Inspector assigned the task of determining the cause of the "accident" you will note that his report stated"The most probable cause". Which with no survivors is going to be the most positive report that it is possible to return.