Air New Zealand Flight 901: Encyclopedia II - Air New Zealand Flight 901 - The accident

Air New Zealand Flight 901 - The accident

On November 28, 1979, at 12:49pm NZDT, flight TE901 collided with Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The flight that day was being operated by the DC-10 registered ZK-NZP, which was just under 5 years old. The aircraft altitude at the time of the collision was just 1465 feet (445 metres).

After radio contact was lost, McMurdo Station in Antarctica, who had been in radio contact with the flight, kept trying to contact it, and finally informed Air New Zealand headquarters in Auckland that communication with the aircraft had been lost. US search and rescue aircraft were put on standby. At 10:00pm NZDT, about thirty minutes after the DC-10 would have used the last of its fuel, the airline told reporters that it had to be assumed that the aircraft was lost. The wreckage was finally located about 1:00am NZDT by a United States Navy search aircraft.

The dead included 200 New Zealanders, 24 Japanese, 22 Americans, six British, two Canadians, one Australian, one French, and one Swiss. Forty four of the victims were not identified.

The accident is exceptional in that, to this day, controversy exists over the true cause of the accident, and in the amount of responsibility the airline and crew should assume. Public opinion also remains polarised.

The prevailing two opposing theories are listed below, together with their main points.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The accident", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki