ArialPerspective just couldn’thelp himself, could he? With one hand he gives it a rest, while flogging it with the other. The things he refers to are also referred to in Chapter 25 at page 255 of ‘Verdict on Erebus’, this book being the sole source of McNeish’s biography, as least as regards the Erebus accident- (he got the daughter's titty stuff from Mahon’s son). As regards the burglary, it all sounds very sinister. You can almost see the silhouette of the Air New Zealand spy creeping around and you can definitely hear the violin but then, right at the end, the side is completely let down, with this:
“My own impression of the incident was that of someone who had lost a relative or friend in the disaster had become aware from the newspapers that the aircrew were being blamed, and by reason, probably, of emotional disturbance might have searched the Collins home for any documents relating to the disaster.” (p274)
So Air New Zealand had nothing to do with it? Why, then, do ArialPerspective and others think they might have? Far from being the brave character who broke ranks and paid for it with his life, Mahon was just a slimey weasel. All of his conspiracy theories were wrong and I would behappy to explain why, if any NZALPA lacky out there would care to nominate one. By way of an example, let’s take “the gap in the passengers photograph" at pages 258 and 259 of Mahon’s book:
“When, at an early stage of the enquiry, I had surveyed the available range of passengers’ photographs, I had become concerned, to some degree, that there was a sequence of photographs which seemed to me to be missing. Many hundreds of the photographic prints had been developed from the cameras found on the crash site. The photographs produced at the hearing showed views to the east, west and north. But there was not a single photograph which showed the view to the south, that is to say, towards Ross Island. If you looked at the flight path of the aircraft as it completed its two orbits, it was obvious that there had been four occasions upon which the aircraft had been side-on to Ross Island. On the two most southern aspects of the orbits the aircraft had been only five to ten miles from the ultimate impact position. Each of these turning sequences had meant the passengers on one side of the aircraft or the other had been able to take photographs to the south from a fairly short range."
The same silhouette then appears, with more violin, ending with this:
"So this was another of the unresolved mysteries of the inquiry. I would have given a great deal to have seen what the passengers had seen when they looked to the south because that would have been what the flightcrew had seen. And I had the uneasy impression that, somewhere or other, during this highly complicated and difficult process of sorting through hundreds of photographs, evidence of a vital nature might have been unidentified or mislaid."
All made-up nonsense: If Mahon had this uneasy impression “at an early stage in the inquiry” he would surely have raised the matter. He did not. If he had, it would have been pointed that the aircraft was travelling with its flaps retracted at well over two hundred knots, so would have had to be banked quite steeply to complete the orbits. The passengers would not have seen what the flight crew saw. The aircraft was never side-on to Ross Island - hence the lack of photographs.
The Honourable gentleman was actually a dishonourable ignoramus. He did not let the truth get in the way of a good story and its associated royalties. There are other examples: Chapter 18 at page 204 - “My Visit To The Crash Site” - is largely fictional and when it gets on to the subject of Beaufort Island, a demonstrable load of bull****. For confirmation, compare what is written there to Mahon’s report, also written after his visit to the crash site. The inconsistencies are so glaring that it looks like he visited Antarctica on two different occasions. For the avoidance of doubt, he only went once.