A ‘hollow victory’

Press, 28 April 1981, Page 6

A ‘hollow victory’

PA Auckland The Mount Erebus crash report was a hollow victory for the woman whose husband flew the ill-fated DCIO. “I can’t say I’m jubilant or relieved,” Mrs Maria Collins said last evening. “I’m pleased that the rest of the country knows what my family knew all along — that my husband was a man of the highest integrity. “He was well aware of his burden as a pilot, and he never took it lightly. “But the agony is something that only we will ever know about. What is left now is for us to try and live with the scar.” Mrs Collins heard about the Royal Commission's find-

ings from her lawyer yesterday morning. She kept the news to herself for several hours — then told the eldest of her four daughters, Kathryn. By 8 p.m everyone knew, and the telephone in the Collins home rang regularly. Family members and a few friends helped to cook an omelette and passed round a copy of the report of the Royal Commission (Mr Justice Mahon). "We’re not a sensational sort of a family, but we have been hitting the headlines for months. Now we’ve just got to cope with what’s left,” Mrs Collins said. “It is not as if they can open the prison gates and let

someone go free, as they could with Arthur Allan Thomas,” Mrs Anne Cassin. the wife of the first officer on the DCIO, could not believe what her lawyer told her until she saw the report. It made good reading. “The last 17 months have been hell,” she said. “This should make life easier — especially for the children. I am delighted the crew have all been cleared.” She said her two eldest children, aged 14 and 11, were ecstatic. Her daughter, aged six, did not really understand what was happening. “I think the May holidays will call for a really good break.”