Cautionary Tales – The Sightseeing Flight and the Invisible Mountain


In November 1979, Flight 901 departs New Zealand on a sightseeing journey over Antarctica, heading straight in the direction of a volcano. When the airplane vanishes, investigators are left with a thriller: how might a seasoned pilot miss a 12,000-foot peak? As they attempt to piece collectively the incident, conflicting tales emerge, key proof disappears, and a troubling image takes form – one outlined by human error, misleading illusions, and the hunt for somebody guilty.

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Additional studying

Most of the key paperwork are collated on the web site https://www.erebus.co.nz, together with the preliminary report of the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents and the findings of Peter Mahon’s Royal Fee. Mahon later wrote a e book referred to as Verdict on Erebus. Gordon Vette additionally wrote a e book concerning the accident and his analysis into whiteout, referred to as Influence Erebus.

In 2011, New Zealand journalist Paul Holmes labored with Jim Collins’ widow and daughters to jot down the e book Daughters of Erebus. In 2019, Stuff and RNZ interviewed most of the surviving key figures for the podcast sequence White Silence. For a flavour of the talk that Erebus can nonetheless provoke, see discussion board threads similar to this and this. James Purpose feedback on the Mahon report in his e book Past Aviation Human Elements, co-authored with Daniel E. Maurino, Neil Johnston and Rob B Lee.

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