Vital words missed

Press, 12 September 1980, Page 3

Vital words missed

PA Auckland r I Had four words been spoken to the crew of the ill-’ fated DCIO on the morning i of the. Antarctica crash the 1 disaster might never have i happened, the commission of < inquiry heard.yesterday. Counsel for the co-pilot s familv, Mr R. L. MacLaren, said 'that had the words “Watch McMurdo change co- 1 ordinates” been spoken to the crew, the crash would probably have been averted. He was cross-examining the flight dispatch officer.: for Air New Zealand, Mr I. ■ A. Johnson, who said he ! thought Mr MacLaren’s assertion could have been possible. . ; Mr MacLaren was referring to a two-degree. error in’!l the flight plan of the pilot, [ Captain T. J. Collins. I:

The commission had heard how the chief navigator fori Air New Zealand, Mr C. B. Hewitt, had 'inadvertently typed' the longitude for McMurdo as 164.48 degrees east rather than 166.48 degrees east. The error, which placed pilots about 27 nautical miles east of McMurdo Base, remained in the flight plan until, just before the fatal flight. Navigation staff were instructed to amend the coordinates, which was done. That route, as was originally intended, took the aircraft over the top ;of Mount Erebus. Under cross-examination by counsel for the , passengers’ families, Mr C. Nicholson, QC... Mr Johnson said ’he had- not been :told to | inform the flight crew of the flight plan change.

Mr Johnson said the error was first revealed on the day of the crash by comparing Captain Collins’s flight plan with an earlier computerised plan. He said he was aware at the time of. producing the flight plan for TE9OI on the day of the crash that the track from Cape Hallett to McMurdo was direct, and that it came “very close”-to the summit of - Mount Erebus. However, he did not know, which side of the summit the track ran. He was also adware that the track ran across Ross Island. ■ . ■ -

Mr Johnson . said this information was general knowledge which he had acquired with experience after having produced Antarctic flight plans for three years.