The captain bad been advised that the visibility below the cloud which was over Ross Island, was 40 miles. The direct flight from Cape Hallett to Williams Field was interrupted some 40 miles true north of McMurdo to take advantage of a hole in the cloud cover, which extended vertically to sea level and to descend the aircraft in this gap prior to its planned arrival near McMurdo. The aircraft was on its planned track and turned over the appropriate point at Cape Hallett to proceed direct towards the next planned waypoint (the TACAN at Williams Field) near McMurdo.ĭuring this leg of the flight the weather conditions over McMurdo and Ross Island generally overcast with a ragged cloud base of 3000 feet.

The flight progressed normally from Auckland to Antarctica and the weather was clear over Northern Victoria Land. The aircraft, ZK-NZP, then took off from Auckland International Airport at 19:17 (27 November). The flight crew programmed their navigation computer using these new coordinates, without having been notified of this change. This route passed direct over Mount Erebus reaching to 12450 feet AMSL. The flight crew thus assumed they would be able to descend over a sea level ice shelf, whereas the corrected route would take the aircraft straight towards the turning point over Williams Field Air Base. This was changed just prior to departure of flight 901.

Subsequently the airline discovered that the IFR computer stored flight plan route contained the wrong destination coordinates with an error of 2° in longitude. Nineteen days before the planned departure of flight TE901, both pilots received this briefing during which diagrams and maps were issued that depicted a track which passed to the true west of Ross Island over a sea level ice shelf. In 1977 Air New Zealand received permission from the Director of Civil Aviation to conduct scenic charter flights overflying Antarctica in the McMurdo area, using DC-10 airliners.įlight crews that operated these flights received a dedicated route qualification briefing which included the route that was to be flown and the operational limits regarding a.o. Accident investigation report completed and information capturedĪuckland International Airport (AKL/NZAA), New ZealandĬhristchurch International Airport (CHC/NZCH), New Zealand

Mt erebus crash seatch team