Saying sorry brings relief to bereaved

The most telling part of the 40th anniversary commemorations for the Erebus disaster was an aside from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after she had apologised on behalf of the Government.

‘‘I sensed relief,’’ she said. Ardern had just finished saying sorry for the actions of Air New Zealand in causing the Erebus disaster in November

1979. The airline’s chairwoman, Dame Therese Walsh, had echoed her words.

The relief Ardern picked up on was from the family members of some of the crash victims she spoke to immediately afterwards.

Yesterday was a long time coming. For

40 years the Erebus story has been about controversy and blame. Now, finally, it was about something else.

The crash is still New Zealand’s deadliest disaster: 257 people killed when an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica while on a sightseeing flight. Whose fault was it?

An initial air accident investigation blamed the pilots, who had flown the aircraft into a mountain at 1500 feet.

Then a royal commission of inquiry took aim at the airline. Not only for the mistakes it made – it badly misled the crew – but for conspiring to deceive the commission and shift the blame to the pilots. Commissioner Justice Peter Mahon called it an ‘‘orchestrated litany of lies’’.

That phrase has dominated the legacy of Erebus since.

It incensed the airline, triggered legal challenges and drowned out everything else. Including the voices of the families of the 257 victims.

Now, the Government and the airline have refocused the Erebus story on them.

Frankly, it should have been there all along.

‘‘After 40 years,’’ Ardern said, ‘‘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.’’

The last part of that sentence is massive. Four decades on, both the Government and Air New Zealand accepted the findings of the Mahon report.

‘‘The pilots were not responsible for this tragedy,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘And I stand here today to state that again.’’

Erebus has been so controversial for so long because no-one sought to make amends. It was an argument that just continued to be an argument.

Air New Zealand made an effort in 2009 when it apologised for the coldhearted way it treated victims’ families after the crash, but there was nothing like what we heard yesterday.

The unequivocal nature won’t please everyone. Many people, particularly aviation experts, believe the pilots of flight TE901 – Captain Jim Collins and First Officer Greg Cassin – were at least partly at fault for the crash. But after so much heartache, such differences of opinion are, in a way, beside the point.

As Ardern told the victims’ families yesterday, the differences of opinion had been the problem all along.

‘‘In an environment of tumultuous claim and counter claim, of public confusion and ongoing debate, it is difficult I am sure to find a clear place to set down your grief.

‘‘You deserve to find that place. No-one can assume to know what that requires though, or even if it is possible . . . All I know is that after 40 years, setting down grief will only be made harder if we don’t acknowledge past wrongs.’’

It took 40 years but now they have. No wonder there was a sense of relief.