He descended visually using a circling procedure in an apparent attempt to maintain clear air below the cloud mass obscuring Mt Erebus.Īpproaching McMurdo Captain Collins descended his aircraft in circles from the safety altitude of 16,000 feet to 10,000 feet and then to 6000 feet. Regrettably, Captain Collins did not descend according to his training. Captain Collins and his co-pilot First Officer Cassin received this training, and had they followed this procedure there would have been no accident. There is no place in airliner navigation for a pilot to think he is somewhere he must know, with no uncertainty, where his aircraft is located and where it is heading.Ĭhange of flight plan waypoint and whiteout became relevant to the accident only when Captain Collins descended his aircraft to very low altitude, using an unorthodox descent procedure, contrary to his briefing and training.Īircrew scheduled to operate Antarctic flights were given training in an approved descent procedure for use when the McMurdo area might be obscured by cloud. Numerous reasons for this failure have been advanced since the accident, with many commentators attempting to convince the New Zealand community that it is possible for an experienced pilot to fly a perfectly serviceable modern airliner into the side of a mountain and to carry no responsibility for his action.Ĭhange of a flight plan waypoint and the Antarctic whiteout phenomenon have been generally blamed for causing the DC10 pilot to think that he was somewhere other than where he was actually located.
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