Aviation analyst and YouTuber Mentour Pilot has revisited the chain of events that led to the 1979 Mount Erebus catastrophe, arguing that a mix of navigational change, inadequate briefing, and Antarctic “whiteout” conditions set the stage for tragedy.
Air New Zealand began operating Antarctic sightseeing flights in early 1977, promising passengers an 11-hour round trip from Auckland in a DC-10 with commentary, meal service and low-level viewing over some of the most remote scenery on Earth.
On November 28, 1979, Flight TE901 departed Auckland with 237 passengers and a five-person flight crew for what was expected to be the final approved Antarctic flight amid rising fuel costs.
According to the account, the DC-10 relied heavily on an inertial navigation system programmed with a pre-set route, but the final waypoint was altered around 2:00am on the day of departure, effectively shifting the aircraft’s track by about 27 nautical miles without the crew being clearly informed.
Mentour Pilot (real name Petter Hörnfeldt) says this left the pilots believing they were tracking down McMurdo Sound over low, flat sea ice, when in fact they were being guided toward Ross Island and the rising terrain of Mount Erebus.
As the aircraft descended for sightseeing, intermittent radio contact problems and the absence of reliable radar coverage compounded uncertainty.
The video describes how “whiteout” — a polar optical illusion that removes contrast between snow-covered terrain and cloud layers — likely prevented the crew from recognising the mountain directly ahead.
At 1,500 feet, the ground proximity warning sounded only seconds before impact, and the DC-10 struck the lower slopes of Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.
Hörnfeldt highlights the long-running controversy that followed: the initial investigation by Chief Inspector Ron Chippendale attributed the crash primarily to the captain’s decision to continue low-level flight in poor visual definition, while Justice Peter Mahon’s Royal Commission concluded the crew was mistakenly confident in their position and that the core failure was an internal breakdown that allowed the route change to occur without proper notification. Mahon also accused Air New Zealand management of a deliberate cover-up – a “litany of lies”, allegations later set aside after legal review found parts of his findings exceeded his mandate, but the debate has remained one of New Zealand’s most polarising events.
1962 International Finance Agreement – Erebus – Christchurch – Covid
Orchestrated litanies of lies
Facades and White washes in obfuscation of the truth
All the evidence is there but nothing is being done
And not likely to be any time soon
It is much easier to create distractions and go after soft targets like Counterspin Media
Shut them down confiscate their gear and maybe the problem will go away
Problems don’t go away and need to be addressed then dealt with
Like terrorism corruption cannot take place without state institutions and participation
And active involvement
Look at the massive scale of corruption unfolding in America involving Somali migrants
This is the future direction NZ is headed in
The seeds have been sown and the infidelity will persist and come home to roost
Official commission of enquiries never really get to the point. How is that arranged?
By restricting what questions are allowed to be asked . Normally an independent person is appointed.
For example the deadly vaccines enquiry appointment was a lawyer. Levy KC. The people called to the enquiry didn’t have to attend. Chris Hipkins, Jacinda Ardern were allowed to refuse to testify.
Now why is that? These loopholes or escape routes are built in because politicians who arrange them, have something to loose or government doesn’t want to pay compensation.They use words like scope of enquiry. Meaning they don’t want to get off subject. All it is is just engineering in the outcome they desire.
There is a thing called court rules. You can ask this but you can’t ask that.
The Erebus tragedy came about by someone altering the navigation system at 2am and somehow that information wasnt passed on to the pilots. It might be a mistake, incompetence or intentional. This evidence isn’t new. New Zealanders knew it at the time.
The Covid Vaccines according to the former vice president of Pfizer were engineered to cause harm, to cause death. That news is in social media and not in government owned news media.
Right now, there is an ongoing court case involving Barry Young. It is a closed court. Even the judge gave himself name suppression. What is the court worried about? They are worried about government being posecuted and convicted of genocide.
Ardern was awarded a Damehood, When Hipkins finally retires he too will receive a Knighthood.
It was no “accident”.
There were several faults in process which prevented accountability:
The NZ government at that time (1979) fully owned Air New Zealand. It was therefore a massive conflict of interests for the same NZ government to set the terms of the Erebus enquiry because that means the culprit was investigating itself.
The NZ government was therefore able to get off on a technicality – it’s called natural justice. And this is the basis on which Air New Zealand was found not guilty.
The NZ government established the Erebus enquiry to find out whether or not pilot error caused the crash. This was far too narrow because this enquiry was not supposed to find out about Air New Zealand’s late route change.
So Justice Peter Mahon should have just found that pilot error did not cause the crash because the cause of the crash was the late route change and not pilot error. This would have kept his finding within the terms of the enquiry.
But to ensure justice for the victims, Justice Peter Mahon went one step further (ie outside the terms of the enquiry) by accusing Air New Zealand of lying – with his original phrase that Air New Zealand orchestrated a “litany of lies” by repeatedly lying under cross-examination to cover up the reasons for the crash. This finding by Justice Peter Mahon was deemed to fall outside the original terms of the enquiry (which was to determine whether or not pilot error caused the crash).
So Air New Zealand appealed – and won the appeal. Why? Because Justice Peter Mahon accused Air New Zealand of lying. Air New Zealand won the appeal because they said Justice Peter Mahon should have focussed only on whether or not pilot error caused the crash and said nothing about Air New Zealand’s “litany of lies”.
The defence used by Air New Zealand to win the appeal is called natural justice – the right to know. Air New Zealand argued on appeal that they conducted themselves at the Royal Commission believing that the question to be answered was whether or not pilot error caused the crash. (So they lied thru their teeth!!!). Had they known that they would also be on trial for carefully orchestrating a litany of lies, then Air New Zealand argued they would have conducted themselves very differently during the Royal Commission. (and wouldn’t have lied thru their teeth)
This is the unfortunate way the law works. The legal system is a joke and justice is never done by the judiciary.
A relevant footnote – NZ’s prime minister at that time – Robert Muldoon responded by cutting Justice Peter Mahon’s pension (he was a retired judge). Then few years later after Muldoon lost the snap election in 1984, one of the very first things newly incumbent prime Minister did during his first day in office as PM in 1984 – was to reinstate Justice Peter Mahon’s pension