-
Pre-Flight Navigation Briefing
Captain Jim Collins and First Officer Greg Cassin, part of the flight crew rostered on Air New Zealand's 28 November Antarctic flight, attended a route qualification briefing. Material presented at the briefing, including printouts of a flight plan used for a previous trip, gave the impression that the route would take them over the flat sea ice of McMurdo Sound -
Period: to
The Loss of New Zealand Flight 901
This timeline shows the key events leading up to the crash of NZ Flight 901 into Mount Erebus
Copyright Notice: All images in this timeline are property of the New Zealand Police, permission must be sort from them before using the images -
Navigational Data Change
In the early hours of 28 November a navigational coordinate in the flight plan presented at the briefing was changed. The airline’s navigation section believed it was making a minor adjustment, but a typing error some 14 months earlier meant it had actually shifted this point some 27 nautical miles to the east. Instead of the route taking Flight TE901 over flat sea ice, as Collins and Cassin had been briefed, it would take them directly over Mt Erebus -
0830hrs - Flight 901 Departs New Zealand
Air New Zealand Flight TE901 left Mangere airport, Auckland, for its 11-hour return flight to Antarctica -
1245hrs, Last communication with Flight 901
First Officer Greg Cassin advised Mc Murdo Station that the aircraft was at 6000 ft in the course of descending to 2000 ft -
1249hrs Flight 901 crashes into the side of Mt Erebus
Four minutes and 42 seconds after its last communication with McMurdo Station Flight 901 crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus, killing all on board.
