Declassified Erebus disaster documents show US pressure to finalise crash report
Monday, 3 January 2022
United States officials were pushing for the release of a report into the Erebus crash months before royal commission findings into New Zealand’s worst air disaster were complete, new documents show.
All 257 people on board were killed when an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica on a sightseeing flight on November 28, 1979.
Declassified documents stored at the national archives in Wellington give insights into the months following the crash – notably, the pressure New Zealand was under to fast-track the results the government inquiry led by Justice Peter Mahon.
The royal commission, which later proved a major controversy with Justice Mahon’s “orchestrated litany of lies” comment regarding Air New Zealand’s evidence, began in July 1980. His report was made public in April 1981.
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In February that year, the then-New Zealand ambassador to the United States contacted the Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighting the pressure.
“US State Department and the Pentagon have enquired several times in the past few weeks whether the Royal Commission’s report is yet available,” he said.
“In light of this interest we would be grateful if, when the report is published, you could forward us a number of copies (say four) as soon as possible.”
In the weeks after the crash, the ministry was also told the crash was leading national news in the US.
“All major news channels last night carried item in top billing – some channels ahead of President [Jimmy] Carter’s news conference on Iran [hostage crisis],” read one message, sent in December 1979.
It went on to mention the negative publicity New Zealand was receiving, for instance, saying New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority had “indifferent safety precautions”.
New Zealand’s diplomats were strictly told not to talk to media about the crash.
Milton Wylie, an air crash investigator, was in the US at the time, travelling with the black box recording devices from the crash.
MFAT asked diplomats in Los Angeles and Washington DC to watch out for Wylie, and protect him from publicity.
After only a couple of days in the US, the Ministry of Transport informed Washington that Wylie was almost out of money.
“Wylie may not have enough money for his needs in Washington (they are uncertain how long he will be there),” the memo read.
Washington diplomats were told to give money to Wylie as he needed it, “and charge vouchers to [the Ministry of Transport]”.
There was also confusion in the months following the disaster when Austrian authorities claimed one of their nationals was on the ill-fated flight.
The embassy contacted police three weeks after the crash, informing them that they believed one of their citizens was on the plane.
But they also advised that the man had peculiar intentions.
“An Austrian national named Kurt Ferdinand Meier indicated in an undated letter to the Austrian Federal Chancellor and received in Vienna on 29 November that he intended to travel to Antarctica,” the letter said.
“Crash investigators may be interested to know that Meier’s somewhat confused letter implied that he intended to give up Austrian citizenship and to proclaim independent state of Antarctica. Address at the time of mailing was Hotel Travel Lodge, Christchurch.”
Officials began investigating if someone called Jürg Meier, a Swiss national who was on the flight, was one and the same as Kurt Meier.
Air New Zealand had earlier confirmed their passenger list to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and listed a Jurg Meyer from Dietikon, Switzerland.
The documents don’t offer any conclusion whether Kurt Meier was on the flight, but he has never been mentioned in passenger lists in the decades since the crash.