NEWS ‘We’re sorry’
EREBUS CRASH
The Government and Air New Zealand have apologised to the families of the 257 people who died in the 1979 Erebus disaster.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the way the report was handled was wrong, and the wrongs needed to be acknowledged.
She said after 40 years, it was time to say sorry and end “piecemeal” responses to the disaster.
Failures to acknowledge past wrongs only made the families’ grief more difficult.
“After 40 years, on behalf of today’s government, the time has come to apologise for the actions of an airline then in full state ownership, which ultimately caused the loss of the aircraft and the loss of those you loved.
“This apology is wholehearted and wide reaching. We will never know your grief, but I know the time has come to say I am sorry.”
Air New Zealand chairwoman Dame Therese Walsh said the airline apologised for failing its duty of care for passengers and staff.
“And I apologise again on behalf of the airline for the way in which the families of those lost on Mt Erebus were treated in the aftermath of the accident. Better care should have been taken of you.”
Families of those who died in the tragedy met Ardern and the Governor General, Dame Patsy Reddy, at a private ceremony at Government House in Auckland.
At 12.49pm, staff at Scott Base in Antarctica gathered at a koru memorial on the hill above the base for a short reading, a message from Ardern, and a moment’s silence to commemorate the anniversary.
The events mark 40 years since the crash of Air New Zealand Flight TE901 on a sightseeing journey to Antarctica.
Also present at the gathering were members of the team tasked with the job of recovering bodies.
On the morning of November 28, 1979, the Air NZ plane left Auckland. At 12.49pm the aircraft crashed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew.
Erebus remains the worst peacetime accident in New Zealand’s history, the scale of loss shocked the nation.
The plane was lost from the fleet of the national carrier — Air New Zealand was in full state ownership at that time.
At Auckland Airport, the E tu¯ union held a service at the Erebus Crew Memorial Gardens.
“Erebus changed a nation,” says E tu¯‘s Head of Aviation, Savage.
“257 people from New Zealand and around the world died.
“This was one of our worst industrial accidents, a day when 20 aviation workers lost their lives.
“It changed the way the whole world thought about aviation safety and about our shared responsibilities to put safety first,” he said.
“We invite all New Zealanders wherever they are in the world to pause for a minute and reflect on the event and the importance of safety at work and the responsibility we all have to look out for one another.”
In the fallout from the crash, blame was laid on the pilots.
Two years later a Royal Commission of Inquiry absolved the crew of causing the accident, and commissioner Justice Peter Mahon instead pointed the finger at Air New Zealand.
He famously accused the airline of “an orchestrated litany of lies”.
In 1983 however, the Privy Council found Mahon had acted outside his jurisdiction in finding a conspiracy by Air New Zealand, on the grounds that those accused of it did not get a chance to give evidence.
Mahon resigned in response, but he never resiled from his findings.
In 2009, Air New Zealand’s chief executive at the time, Rob Fyfe made an apology to families during the unveiling of a sculpture at the airline’s headquarters.
A decision to build a memorial in Auckland’s Dove-Myer Robinson Park will be made by the Waitemata¯ Local Board on December 3.
The plan to build at the park in Parnell is contentious.
Some locals have delayed approval for the memorial, saying would ruin the look of the area, also known as the rose gardens.
We will never know your grief, but I know the time has come to say I am sorry. Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister
Philip Keenan was on the other side of the world when he heard that his flight attendant sister Dianne was missing on the doomed Air New Zealand sightseeing trip to Erebus. He flew home to his Auckland family immediately. And after their worst fears were confirmed, fresh mysteries emerged.
Says Keenan: “I was living with my girlfriend in London and I just said ‘look I’ve got to go home’. I remember the captain on the Air New Zealand flight calling me up into the cabin; he was just expressing his bewilderment and shock and he said ‘I know Jim Collins and there is not an ounce of cowboy in that bloke. He’s the most by-the-book pilot’.”
Dianne’s body was never recovered, but some of her belongings were. This came under intense scrutiny by the Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Peter Mahon, explains Keenan.
“Her diary was recovered. The top right-hand corner, where her name was, had been torn out, and Justice Mahon, in his report, featured the diary because it was sent to the wife of Jim Collins and when she opened it, she found that it obviously wasn’t her husband’s, and had it returned to my family. He [Collins] had a similar notebook. They had ripped the pages of his notations out and had discarded the contents and sent my sister’s back in its place. This was the source of a great deal of controversy at the time. It was obviously some form of active deception.”
Thirty years after the disaster, Keenan was invited to enter a ballot to be among the six family members on a commemorative flight to Erebus. He wanted to go, but his name was not drawn. Then chance intervened.
“There was another family member who did manage to be one of the lucky six and she said ‘ look, Philip Keenan and his family never had their loved one returned to them. We were fortunate enough to have a son and brother returned to us. Would it be okay if I gave my ticket to Philip?’ So I was fortunate to make that trip.
“It was the most amazing view I think I’ve ever seen. It totally blew away my preconceived notions of Antarctica being this cold, lifeless, dark foreboding place.”
Dianne was 24 and enjoying her dream job when she died, says Keenan.
“In one sense I think everyone on the flight, apart from a few brief seconds for those on the flight deck, were just going along merrily. They were with us one minute, and then they were gone. Horrendous for those they left behind.
But for them, although their lives were cut short, in some ways it was a blessing they went so quickly and didn’t have the horror of knowing what was to come.”
The mysteries continued. The podcast explores why it took 30 years before Keenan would find out why his sister was never returned home.