Memory found ‘at fault’

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 4

Memory found ‘at fault’

The Commission found that, contrary to denials by Mr Davis, the airline’s management was in fact aware that pilots on Antarctic flights were descending as low as 1500 ft. His Honour referred in particular to an article written by the president of the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation (Mr John Brizendine) describing the “spectacular nature” of an Antarctic flight on which he travelled, as a guest at “3000 ft above the ice.” The scripts, with a personal note attached, was .sent to Mr Davis by Mr Brizendine.

The Commission observed in its report: “Seeing that this eulogistic article clearly referred to an approach down the centre of McMurdo Sound at an altitude of 3000 ft, the question naturally arose as to why the chief executive had been unaware, as from the end of 1977, that the suggested MSA of 6000 ft was not being complied with. Upon being asked about this in cross-examina-tion, the chief executive replied to the effect that he received considerable quantities of mail and that it was his practice not to read many of the attachments annexed to his correspondence.

“I asked him whether this philosophy applied to the president of the McDonnellDouglas Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of aircraft in the world. The chief executive replied in the sense that even correspondence of this major importance was not immune from the chief executive’s practice of not reading all attachments to his correspondence. Needless to , say, I find myself unable, to accept this explanation. I can only make the assumption that the chief

executive’s memory is at fault. "Towards the end of the hearings before the Commis- ? sion it was discovered by counsel assisting the Commission that Mr Brizendine’s ! article had been widely distributed throughout New. Zealand as part of a. publication entitled ‘Travelling Times.’ “It was further discovered that no less than one million 1 copies of this circular had been prepared. The object of the airline had been to en-. sure, so far as possible, that a copy of the publication reached every home in New Zealand. Counsel assisting the Commission acquired, from the distributors a complete breakdown of distribution, with .itemised figures for every; part of New Zea-' land. A total of 978,620 copies had been distributed through-

out the country.. The total cost to ’the airline’ was $16,008. A . ■ > “This ” revelation was greetedwith some measure of surprised'protest by counsel for Air New Zealand, and it is apparent that in this matter,, as in some other matters which arose during the Inquiry,. they had not been informed by the airline of the existence of the distribution of this circular. I asked Mr Davis how it could possibly be suggested that the airline’s management was unaware of flights below 6000 ft in view of the fact that his company had seen fit to print one million copies of a printed text which established that fact. He could suggest no reasonable explanation. 4 ? T only advert to this wide-j spread publicity of the actual ’ •

flight levels being conducted in Antarctica because of the steadfast denial by the airline management, by the Flight Operations Division of the airline, and by the Civil Aviation Division, that any such information ever became known to them. As it happens, flights as low as 1500 ft are perfectly safe in clear weather and were far in excess of the minimum “safe, altitudes described by the regulations. They were considered safe and Acceptable by <the “Uhitddt'States Navy and there Wiibf- doubt at all that no question of breach of any safety rules arose in respect .of flights at this level,. But the alleged, contravention of iilie-official MSA levels of Mp'dOft and PpOOIt formed the bulwark of ' the defence. tacks ‘ made ' .tipoh.v them in respect “of ?fheir organisational defects. . ‘ '•/; > : : 4 “At every point when an [error, on the part:6f their (respective officials .Aras al{leged, and often identified, < the answer ’ was inevitably given that the disasterwould not have occurred had the aircraft been; -flyirtg at 16,000 ft. This, of course, is correct. The disaster would also not have occurred had Captain Collins been notified prior to leaving Auckland that the computer.track of the aircraft, previously plotted down the safe area of McMurdo Sound, had been altered, without his know-: ledge, to a collision, course with Mt Erebus. Had Captain Collins even suspected that such an alteration had been made, it can safely be assumed that the aircraft; would not have left Auckland' until the -altered track had been plotted on a tbpographifcal map.” ’ “ ’