Destruction of documents draws fire

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 1

Destruction of documents draws fire

Air New Zealand was criticised by Mr Justice Mahon for destroying documents connected with the disaster.

It was certainly a grave error by the airline’s Chief Executive (Mr M. R. Davis) to have directed the destruction of any Antarctic documents, whether “surplus copies” or not, he said.

An opportunity had thereby been created for people in the airline to get rid of documents which might seem to implicate airline officials as being responsible for the disaster.

The whole episode had very plainly engendered bitter feelings among the relatives of the dead flight crew and their fellow pilots, particularly over the character of the three documents said to have been found, said his Honour.

He could understand the difficulty in recovering loose documents from this desolate mountainside, although the heavy atlas

was not in that category, but the failure to recover any of the maps and documents which would have justified the flight decisions of Captain Collins was “an unlucky event.”

Even more so was the apparent destruction of the flight documents of First Officer Cassin, which he had left at his home.

All documents in possession of the airline connected with these Antarctic flights should have been retained and handed over to the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents (Mr R. Chippindale), said his Honour.

Similarly, all documents and articles at the crash site belonging to the flight crew or appearing to relate in any way to the fatal flight ought to have been handed over at McMurdo either to the police or to Mr Chippindale, and to nobody else. “Had these simple steps been taken, a great deal of bitterness and distress and justifiable suspicion would have been avoided,” said his Honour.