1981, Peter Mahon: A lesson learned

The battered tail of the ill-fated DC-10 lying on its side surrounded by wreckage. (NZ Herald Archive)

One of the great controversies of the year arose from the report by Justice Peter Mahon on the 1979 Erebus crash in which 257 people died.

In one of the most uncompromising Royal Commission reports ever produced in this country, Justice Mahon exonerated the pilots - who had been blamed by a previous inquiry into the disaster - and instead pointed the finger at Air New Zealand.

The single effective cause of the crash, he said, was that someone had changed the flight co-ordinates and failed to inform the pilots.

This was directly attributable to incompetent airline administrative procedures which had made the mistake possible.

But he went further and, with the memorable phrase "an orchestrated litany of lies", he accused senior managers of a cover-up.

For his bold report, the 1981 Herald would have chosen Peter Mahon as New Zealander of the Year.

It accepted his findings and, in an editorial discussing their implications, stressed the importance of learning lessons from the disaster and rebuilding Air New Zealand's reputation under new management.

IN HINDSIGHT
Controversy erupted almost immediately with Air NZ's executives challenging Mahon's finding that there had been a cover-up.

Eventually, the Privy Council found against Mahon on this point saying the evidence did not support it, and that he had breached the rules of natural justice because he had not given the executives a chance to tell their side of the story.

But, importantly, it said that Mahon's report had convincingly cleared the pilots of any suggestion of negligence and it supported his conclusions about the airline's "slipshod system of administration" and "grave deficiencies" in the briefings for Antarctic flights.

"These appalling blunders and deficiencies ... had caused the loss of 257 lives," said the Privy Council.

The controversy still surfaces from time to time with some experts preferring the conclusions of the original air accident report and arguing that the Mahon's judgment was deeply unbalanced.

In an editorial on the 25th anniversary of the disaster, the Herald said that both reports had valid elements when untangling the web of contributory factors.

"What can be said with certainty is that Justice Mahon's report has had an enduring impact. Since then, air accident investigations have looked closely at airline systems, rather than dwell almost exclusively on crew behaviour."

In other words, it appears that the essential lesson of the Mahon report - which the Herald recommended to readers in 1981 - has been learned.

So with hindsight, Justice Peter Mahon is still our New Zealander of the Year, despite the controversy over his report.

From the Herald archives:
'It helps that we learned from Erebus', NZ Herald online

'Lessons for today in Erebus probe fallout', NZ Herald online

Further reading:
'The Erebus inquiry by Peter Mahon', New Zealand History Online

'Court action following Erebus disaster inquiry', New Zealand History Online

'Ongoing debate over Erebus', New Zealand History Online

NZ Airline Pilots Association website on Erebus, Erebus.co.nz

'The Mahon report', Erebus.co.nz

Privy Council hearing decision, British and Irish Legal Information Institute