Pre-crash Erebus film on Aust. TV

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 1

Pre-crash Erebus film on Aust. TV

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor Dramatic movie film shot aboard an Air New Zealand DCIO moments before it crashed into Mount Erebus has been shown on national television in Australia.

The footage was included in a “60 Minutes” programme which reviewed the aftermath of the crash and the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry. Produced by Channel Nine in Sydney, the documentary, “Flight 901; the cover-up,” was televised across Australia recently to an estimated audience of four million.

The 30-second colour segment recovered from the wreckage showed passengers, some holding drinks, walking in the aircraft’s aisles and looking out of the windows. The camera ■appeared to be rolling at the moment of impact. The programme’s executive producer, Mr Gerald Stone, is not saying how Channel Nine obtained the film.

“That is something we are not prepared to reveal,” he told “The Press” from Sydney yesterday. Mr Stone confirmed that some viewers who were distressed by the film’s inclusion in the documentary had complained to the channel. Mr Peter Mahon, Q.C., who

conducted the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster and who was interviewed in the programme, does not know whether the footage shown in Australia was part of that originally viewed at the hearing.

Mr Mahon is arranging to see a video-tape of the programme.

New Zealand viewers will not see the Channel Nine production. A spokesman for TVNZ. said that the documentary had been offered, but would not be screened “because it added nothing new” to the Erebus story. In any case, TVNZ would not • want to show film of easily identifiable people

moments before they were killed, he said. Television New Zealand faces a $lOO,OOO defamation claim by Captain Bruce Crosbie arising from a New Zealand-made documentary on the tragedy screened late last year. Captain Crosbie, an Air New Zealand employee who was a principal witness at the inquiry, is also suing the producers for another $lOO,OOO. The documentary, which was originally titled, “Flight 901: Erebus Disaster,” has been re-titled “Death Flight 901: Erebus Disaster” for world-wide release. It has been screened by Granada Television in the United Kingdom.