Erebus crash: MOTAT offers to home memorial, but victims' families not convinced

Friday, 21 May 2021

Family, relatives and representatives lay wreaths at the Erebus Memorial site near Auckland Airport to mark the 41st anniversary of the tragedy.

Auckland museum MOTAT has offered to home the Erebus memorial in response to a petition against plans to build it in a central Auckland park.

The petition, which has over 10,000 signatures, urged Prime Minister Jacinda Arden to relocate the memorial site.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) chief executive Michael Frawley showed interest in homing the memorial.

“We have advised the Prime Minister’s office that we would be delighted to discuss with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, the Waitematā Local Board, families, Iwi and other stakeholders with a vested interest in the issue whether the Memorial should be located at MOTAT.”

Family, relatives and representatives lay wreaths at the Erebus Memorial site near Auckland Airport last year. Some families of the 257 lives lost in the disaster are declining MOTAT’s offer.

* It's time the families got what they have requested

* Erebus memorial: Government application deferred until next year

Protests have been held against the Erebus memorial being built in Dove-Myer Robinson Park. (File photo)

* 'Nimbys' oppose Erebus park memorial: ‘You don’t drink a glass of wine next to a grave’

However, families of the 257 lives lost in the Air New Zealand plane crash into Mt Erebus, are declining MOTAT’s offer.

“Thanks, but no thanks to MOTAT,” said Paul Gilberd, grandson of Peter Tanton who was on the flight to Antarctica.

”We don’t need another site, we have a site.”

The Erebus memorial is planned to be built in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, Parnell, but is delayed due to protesters attempting to stop the construction.

“We followed a process for over 40 years, we have engaged with mana whenua, we have the blessings of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei,” said Gilberd.

An architectural illustration of the proposed memorial site.

The Erebus disaster, on November 28, 1979, was New Zealand's deadliest peacetime tragedy.

Everyone on board the Air New Zealand jet, which took off from Auckland Airport on a sightseeing trip to Antarctica, died when it somehow flew directly into the Erebus volcano.

Most of the victims’ family members spoken to by Stuff expressed their concern at the idea of homing a memorial site in a place of “amusement or entertainment”.

Dan Moloney, son of Nick Moloney who was the crew flight engineer, said the museum was not ideal as it was “too busy”.

“MOTAT would relegate it to a museum piece and curiosity for the public and I wonder too if family members would have to pay to enter what is really a place for relics and exhibits not a memorial,” said David Ling, who lost his mother Alison Ling on the flight.

Deputy chief executive for delivery at Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Tamsin Evans, said MOTAT is not an appropriate site for a memorial.

“Changing the memorial location is not simple or straightforward – it could potentially take another two years,” said Evans.

Plans to change the memorial site would add a cost for taxpayers for “new assessments, redesigns, consents and planning”.

“We don’t want the Erebus whānau to wait any longer, the site in Dove-Myer Robinson Park is the best location for the memorial,” she said.