Daughters of Erebus

Electronic book text

On the afternoon of November 28, 1979, I finished a three-hour physics exam and walked home in the rain to news that a sightseeing flight to Antarctica was missing.

No one who lived through that evening forgot it. The DC-10, flight TE-901 with 257 souls aboard, was overdue. By midnight it was obvious it was down. Somewhere. The drama captured a nation.

Then it was found, a black smear across the slopes of Mount Erebus. Nigel Roberts's picture of the DC-10's broken tail and koru emblem amid the snow remains one of the iconic images of New Zealand's 20th century.

So began years of argument in which the pilots were officially blamed by air investigator Ron Chippendale, but later found innocent by Royal Commissioner Justice Peter Mahon - who found fault with the airline. And triggered a political hailstorm.

The technical side of what happened on Mt Erebus on that fateful November day back in 1979 has been brilliantly explained by Justice Mahon, the Royal Commissioner appointed to investigate the crash of the Air New Zealand DC 10. His magnificent investigation and conclusions were rubbished by a Prime Minister desperate to remove blame from Air New Zealand who, as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, was desperate to save the airline, to save its face and its possible financial ruin as a result of negligence claims. Without a doubt, the airline was grossly negligent in changing the navigation co-ordinates early in the morning on the day of the flight and not informing the pilot.

Daughters of Erebus is the story of five people who were left behind and how the whole tragedy affected their lives.

This is a New Zealand story told by one of New Zealands great storytellers. It literally drips with pathos and is a must-read story.

Praise for Daughters of Erebus:

"He paints a compelling picture of real people and true emotion. It is as gripping as any novel. More so. The last chapters, covering Mahon's death and Pip Collins's 2009 journey to the ice, are among the most moving of any non-fiction I have read." - The NZ Listener