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Verdict on Erebus
A rare book covering Jim Whitaker's climb of Mount Everest. Hardcover with Dustjacket.
- GenresNonfiction
296 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 9, 2020
What an amazing yet tragic and horrifying account of New Zealand's worst air disaster and consequential cover-up. In 1979, an Air New Zealand DCIO aircraft crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica and all 257 souls were lost. The Hon P.T.Mahon, (Mr. Justice Mahon), a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand, was appointed as The Royal Commissioner to head the Inquiry into the truth behind the accident and who and what bore the major culpability for it. As his investigation continued, my respect for The Commissioner grew as he refused to allow himself to be intimated by powerful forces obturating frequently the evidence before him. I found this very factual with much aviation detail but interesting enough to capture one's attention completely. I was totally absorbed in the entire procedure of how this process of law actually worked and how the conclusion was reached. I highly recommend this book to all truth seekers.
March 6, 2016
I have read this book three or four times. It is gripping. Mahon’s measured, balanced, dispassionate prose contrasts with the horror and violence and existential mystery of what he describes: the instant annihilation of 257 lives.
There is also a real sense of Mahon’s despair and indignation at Air New Zealand’s despicable conduct during the subsequent inquiry. His disgust bubbles away just beneath the surface: 'I am forced reluctantly to say that I had to listen to an orchestrated litany of lies,' the judge says.
The final page of this book is pure poetry.
There is also a real sense of Mahon’s despair and indignation at Air New Zealand’s despicable conduct during the subsequent inquiry. His disgust bubbles away just beneath the surface: 'I am forced reluctantly to say that I had to listen to an orchestrated litany of lies,' the judge says.
The final page of this book is pure poetry.
October 20, 2021
Peter Mahon's book following his investigation and report into Air New Zealand's flight to the Antartica on 28 November 1979 resulting in the loss of 257 lives and subsequent events is a remarkable summing up of his findings and the reasons for his conclusions in respect of the pilots and others involved in this tragedy.
For his efforts Mahon was shamefully criticised by no less than the Prime Minister of the day and the Air NZ executive, but as we all now know of course his report was subsequeenkly accepted and tabled in the NZ House of Parliament in the 1990s and more recently the current Prime Minister and also current Chair of Air NZ has publicly apologised to all victims of the tragedy, including the pilots' families.
One would hope that this apology extended to the Mahon family given that Peter Mahon was given a great disservice at the time which, rather that see him marginalised and and unconscioably ctiticised by many who should have known better mainly within Air NZ, would better have been kinighted for his work as a Chief Justice as well as with the enquiry which set a new standard for the investigation of all accidents involving wide bodied aircraft internationally.
Peter Mahon was arguably an intelligent man with a brilliant mind who, as it transpired, did not suffer fools and therefore clearly the man for the job. An excellent book which should be read by everyone involved in the arline industry in an executive and air crew capacity in this country and those involved in air accident investigations internationally.
For his efforts Mahon was shamefully criticised by no less than the Prime Minister of the day and the Air NZ executive, but as we all now know of course his report was subsequeenkly accepted and tabled in the NZ House of Parliament in the 1990s and more recently the current Prime Minister and also current Chair of Air NZ has publicly apologised to all victims of the tragedy, including the pilots' families.
One would hope that this apology extended to the Mahon family given that Peter Mahon was given a great disservice at the time which, rather that see him marginalised and and unconscioably ctiticised by many who should have known better mainly within Air NZ, would better have been kinighted for his work as a Chief Justice as well as with the enquiry which set a new standard for the investigation of all accidents involving wide bodied aircraft internationally.
Peter Mahon was arguably an intelligent man with a brilliant mind who, as it transpired, did not suffer fools and therefore clearly the man for the job. An excellent book which should be read by everyone involved in the arline industry in an executive and air crew capacity in this country and those involved in air accident investigations internationally.
March 21, 2017
A fascinating account of the inquiry into the Erebus disaster. Parts of it were like reading a thriller, it was so engaging.
February 17, 2023
In his summation following the Royal Commission he headed into New Zealand’s worst ever air crash, the loss of 257 souls when Flight TE-901 slammed into the side of Mount Erebus in Antarctica, Mr Justice Mahon said, “I am forced reluctantly to say that I had to listen to an orchestrated litany of lies.” He was hounded for his honesty and his capacity to see things through; not least in the blast from New Zealand Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, a personal friend of Air New Zealand CEO of the time, Morrie Davis.
Australia’s international flag-bearer Qantas had made overflights of Antarctica, and Air New Zealand saw opportunity. They scheduled flights in 1978 and 1979, all of which were concluded in safety until 28 September 1979, when a huge Douglas DC-10 passenger aircraft came to grief on the northern face of Mount Erebus.
Verdict On Erebus is Robert Mahon’s account of the commission, and what happened and why. An initial report conducted by the Chief Investigator of Air Accidents into the crash found the two pilots the prime cause of the disaster: ‘Pilot error’ is an easy way out, especially for airlines’ insurance underwriters. In point of fact, Mahon was able to show that a change made by Air New Zealand’s navigation chiefs the night before the fatal flight, and not made known to the pilots, was the principal cause.
For this flight, and in the age before GPS, an altered waypoint was keyed into the erstwhile accurate Inertial Navigation System (INS) used in DC-10s (and most aircraft of the time), but not enunciated to the pilots. It was a change that placed the flight 27 miles East of the track taken by earlier flights. Instead of following a path down the centre of McMurdo Sound - as used by the USAF when flying in to Ross Island - the new route headed straight towards the 12,440-foot Mount Erebus.
For sightseeing purposes, and on the basis it was on the same course taken by previous flights, TE-901 had received clearance from the American McMurdo Base to let down to 1500 feet, entirely safe over the ice sheets and leads of the Sound’s freezing waters. This reduction in altitude, though, in combination with the unheralded change in course and with the pilots flying into ‘whiteout,’ a clear-air condition peculiar to overflying frozen landscape, created a script for disaster.
The Air Accident investigation found that the DC-10 was flown into cloud, two convenient but entirely false additional notations added to the cockpit voice recorder transcript evidently made to prove the point. Passenger photographs taken through the aircraft windows to each side only moments before the crash showed clear air. Mahon flew with USAF personnel in Antarctica and observed the false horizon evident in clear air whiteout. This, in combination with the dangerous and uncommunicated change of course, led to the loss of all on board the graceful and perfectly performing aircraft.
It had nothing to do with pilot error.
Mahon’s book now nears its 40th year and remains available, provided the reader is prepared to spend time searching online. It makes for sensible, sensitive reading. I have an original copy and have now read it five times.
Australia’s international flag-bearer Qantas had made overflights of Antarctica, and Air New Zealand saw opportunity. They scheduled flights in 1978 and 1979, all of which were concluded in safety until 28 September 1979, when a huge Douglas DC-10 passenger aircraft came to grief on the northern face of Mount Erebus.
Verdict On Erebus is Robert Mahon’s account of the commission, and what happened and why. An initial report conducted by the Chief Investigator of Air Accidents into the crash found the two pilots the prime cause of the disaster: ‘Pilot error’ is an easy way out, especially for airlines’ insurance underwriters. In point of fact, Mahon was able to show that a change made by Air New Zealand’s navigation chiefs the night before the fatal flight, and not made known to the pilots, was the principal cause.
For this flight, and in the age before GPS, an altered waypoint was keyed into the erstwhile accurate Inertial Navigation System (INS) used in DC-10s (and most aircraft of the time), but not enunciated to the pilots. It was a change that placed the flight 27 miles East of the track taken by earlier flights. Instead of following a path down the centre of McMurdo Sound - as used by the USAF when flying in to Ross Island - the new route headed straight towards the 12,440-foot Mount Erebus.
For sightseeing purposes, and on the basis it was on the same course taken by previous flights, TE-901 had received clearance from the American McMurdo Base to let down to 1500 feet, entirely safe over the ice sheets and leads of the Sound’s freezing waters. This reduction in altitude, though, in combination with the unheralded change in course and with the pilots flying into ‘whiteout,’ a clear-air condition peculiar to overflying frozen landscape, created a script for disaster.
The Air Accident investigation found that the DC-10 was flown into cloud, two convenient but entirely false additional notations added to the cockpit voice recorder transcript evidently made to prove the point. Passenger photographs taken through the aircraft windows to each side only moments before the crash showed clear air. Mahon flew with USAF personnel in Antarctica and observed the false horizon evident in clear air whiteout. This, in combination with the dangerous and uncommunicated change of course, led to the loss of all on board the graceful and perfectly performing aircraft.
It had nothing to do with pilot error.
Mahon’s book now nears its 40th year and remains available, provided the reader is prepared to spend time searching online. It makes for sensible, sensitive reading. I have an original copy and have now read it five times.
November 15, 2024
A book about so interesting a topic should have no right to be this boring! But, it's basically the account of a New Zealand judge-esque figure explaining his findings to the public in the face of great pressure to come to any other conclusion by Air New Zealand and the New Zealand government. Would make a terrific HBO miniseries.
June 6, 2020
This was a masterpiece in accounting the commission of enquiries findings into the Erebus disaster and the subsequent Air New Zealand coverup which led Peter Mahon to say in his summing up “ I am forced reluctantly to say that I had to listen to an orchestrated litany of lies”.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews