Guest on Starlifter: DC10 low

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 1

Guest on Starlifter: DC10 low

PA Wellington The pilot of the Air New Zealand DCIO which crashed on Mount Erebus advised air-traffic controllers that he was descending to an altitude well below the minimum specified for Antarctic flights, it was asserted yesterday. Mr Robert Byrd Breyer, grandson of the Antarctic pioneer, Rear - Admiral Richard Byrd, said in Wellington that the pilot of a United States Air Force Starlifter flying 40 minutes

behind the DCIO had heard the DClO’s pilot advise McMurdo Station that he was descending to 600 m over Antarctica. Air New Zealand’s minimum altitude for the flights is more than 1800 m. Mr Breyer was a passenger aboard the Starlifter, which was flying American guests to the Ice to celebrate his grandfather’s historic flight there 50 years ago. Mr Breyer said Colonel E. Winchell, commander of the Starlifter, had told him that the DClO’s pilot had

advised McMurdo Station that he was going “on visual” and making the low descent. The message was the DClO’s last before it crashed, and appears to support the theory that its pilot thought he was over Scott Base instead of heading towards Mount Erebus. The Director of Civil Aviation (Captain E. T. Kippenberger) said he thought the theory that the DClO’s pilot was disorientated and approaching Antarctica from the wrong

route was “reasonable comment.” The director of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Mr R. B. Thompson), who had first suggested that the DClO’s pilot had become lost, was well versed .in Air New Zealand’s usual Antarctic route. A Hercules of No. 40 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force left McMurdo Station late last evening for Auckland with the first 90 bodies re-

covered from the crash site. The aircraft is due to reach Whenuapai about 9 a.m. today. Mr Thomson, the leader at Scott Base, said there were indications from the crash site last evening that the entire recovery task would be completed and the policemen on their way home by Monday.

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The Royal Australian Air Force was called in yesterday. An R.A.A.F. Hercules due to leave Christchurch at 8 a.m. today was delayed for eight hours to take part in the body-recovery work. The R.A.A.F. runs six flights to Antarctica from Richmond, New South Wales, at this time of year as part of the “Operation Snowflake” support for New Zealand and American activities at McMurdo Sound. It is planned to bring another R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules from Christchurch tomorrow depending on the rate of progress made by the police recovery teams on Mount Erebus. Mr Thomson said it was still not possible to give a final figure for the number of bodies likely to be recovered. However, it seems that

by progress being made and the fact that only two more Hercules flights are planned to take bodies to Auckland the final figure will be about 180 to 200. Air New Zealand wants information from a readout of the DClO’s flight recorders made public as soon as possible. “I believe there should be as little delay as may be required to inform everybody of the details,” said the airline’s chief executive (Mr M. R. Davis). In Auckland, relatives of the 26 Japanese victims among the 257 who died in the crash yesterday gave the first indication that they will soon move to claim insurance from Air New Zealand. The relatives, who are accompanied by 30 Japanese news-media representatives, have had a regular daily briefing by a representative of Air New Zealand. _ Yesterday for the first time, according to a reliable Japanese source, there was a “tense” discussion on t'he question of compensation. The amounts sought bv the Japanese, as in the case of American victims’ relatives, could be considerable.

The Japanese who died came from the top level of society and included several company directors and intellectuals. An Air New Zealand representative reportedly told the Japanese that negotiations on compensation would be carried out by the company’s head office lawyers through the Tokyo office of the airline. A well placed Justice Department official said in Wellington yesterdav that a special act of Parliament might be necessary to settle legal questions over certification of the dead in the crash. Such a move appeared to be the best means of avoiding long and complicated legal transactions to settle the affairs of New Zealanders aboard the DCIO whose bodies were lost, unidentifiable, or not recoverable.