Better care should have been taken of you.”įorty years on there remains no memorial to the Erebus disaster, and plans to erect one in the Auckland suburb of Parnell face strident opposition, with some saying it would be too “sad” for local residents. “And I apologise again on behalf of the airline for the way in which the families of those lost on Mount Erebus were treated in the aftermath of the accident. An entirely volcanic island in the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica in McMurdo Sound at 77☃0S 168☀0E, Ross Island is made up of four volcanoes including Mount Erebus, the worlds most southerly active volcano 3,794m (12,448ft) high and one of a very few worldwide with a permanent lava lake in the crater. “I apologise on behalf of an airline which 40 years ago failed in its duty of care to its passengers and staff,” Walsh said. The Air New Zealand chair, Dame Therese Walsh, also offered her apologies to the families, a few hundred of whom had gathered at the Auckland memorial event. We will never know your grief, but I know the time has come to say I am sorry.” “This apology is whole-hearted and wide-reaching. “After 40 years, on behalf of today’s government, the time has come to apologise for the actions of an airline then in full state ownership which ultimately caused the loss of the aircraft and the loss of those you loved,” Ardern said. The crash remains New Zealand’s worst peacetime disaster, and because of the country’s size – just 3 million at the time – a large portion of the population was affected, with current transport minister Phil Twyford describing it as an event “that changed our nation” forever. Years of inconclusive and murky inquiries led to accusations from grieving families that Air New Zealand was attempting a cover-up by blaming pilot error – a theory a 1981 royal commission of inquiry debunked, saying the crash was down to a whiteout and the plane’s navigational route being changed without the pilots being informed.Īviation experts say improved technology, such as better satellite equipment and weather data means a similar disaster would not occur today. It was undeniably worsened by the events that followed,” she said, referring to the subsequent investigation. It sent ripples across the country, and trauma that those who weren’t directly affected would probably struggle to fathom.” And time hasn’t necessarily diminished any of that,” Ardern said. “In 1979 so much was lost and the ramifications were immense.
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