Airline executives blamed for DC10 disaster

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 1

Airline executives blamed for DC10 disaster

Blame for the DCIO crash on Mount Erebus in November, 1979, is laid squarely at the door of Air New Zealand and its management by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster.

The report of the oneman Royal Commission was issued yesterday afternoon, and has already been referred to the police because it discloses the ■possibility of criminal charges arising from the Commission’s findings. Pilot error is discounted as a cause of the disaster, in which 257 people died, and ihe single dominant reason is held to be the alteration of the flight path in the aircraft’s computer navigation system. The Commission (Mr Justice Mahon) is highly critical of Air New Zealand executives both soon after the crash and during the hearings by the Commission, and takes the Chief Executive (Mr M. R. Davis) to task for directing that some documents connected with Antarctic flights be destroyed. These apparently included the briefing documents of First Officer G. M. Cassin, which he had left at his home and which were uplifted from there by an Air New Zealand employee. The findings o' the Commission included: — The aircraft and its equipment were suitable for the flight;

—' The aircraft a- ’ its equipment had been properly maintained and serviced;

— The crew held the appropriate licences and ratings, and had adequate experience to make the flight;

— The aircraft was not controlled, flown, n-vi-gated, or manoeuvred in a manner that was unsafe or in circumstances that were unsafe;

— The single effective cause of the crash was the act by airline staff alter-

ing the computer navigation programme without the knowledge of the aircrew;

— The Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Transport failed to ensure that the pilots in command of unscheduled flights to the Antarctic were always provide! with a topographical map on which the flight was plotted;

— A contrib, mg cause was the Civil Aviation Division decision to dispense with the requirement that the pilot-in-command of a flight to the Antarctic should have flown that route before. The Commission has ordered that two-thirds of the' costs and disbursements of the Airline Pilots’ Association, and of the estates of Captain T. J. Collins and First Officer Casein, be paid by Air New Zealand, and the remaining third by the Ministry of Tr~nsport. These total $154,317. In addition, the Commission orders that the entire costs of the consortium representin'? deceased passengers ($72,461) are to be paid out of public funds. The Commission has also ordered that of the general costs incurred by the Government in respect of the inquiry ($275,000). Air New Zealand should pay $150,000. Only two minor recommendations for changes to existing laws and procedures are made, both dealing with inquiries into air accidents. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said yesterday afternoon, on the issuing of the • report, that the Cabinet had decided that the State’s share of costs

assessed by the Commission would be paid forthwith.

References in the report to the Civil Aviation Division and to alterations to regulations would be referred to the Ministry of Transport for its recommendations as soon as possible. The Attorney-General (Mr McLay) has referred the report to the Commissioner of Police (Mr R. J. Walton). “I have taken this step in my capacity as Attor-ney-General, and independently of any consideration by the Cabinet,” he said.“The matter is now in the hands of the police, and it obviously would not be appropriate for me to comment further. Particularly, it would not be propar for me to suggest either who might be charged with any offences, or what charges — if any — might be laid. “The matter is now one for the police and their legal advisers,” Mr McLay said.

The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McLachlan) has asked the Secretary of Transport (Mr J. Healey) for a report on aspects of the Commission’s findings. “I have no comment to make on the report itself, since there will still be considerable litigation arising from the disaster,” said Mr McLachlan. He said that he intended to discuss aspects of the report with the American National Transportation Safety Board and with the International Civil Aviation Organisation when he visited the United States and Canada next month. Omissions by airline, likely claims, page 3