Anderton wants Government to vindicate pilots

Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton wants a Government declaration that the pilots of the aircraft that slammed into Mt Erebus were not responsible for the disaster, which shook the nation.

Mr Anderton, the Economic Development Minister, said he would seek Cabinet support for "some public acknowledgement" that Captain Jim Collins and co-pilot Greg Cassin were not to blame for the crash.

Memorial services were held throughout the country and in Antarctica yesterday.

The captain's widow, Maria Collins, believes the pair were vindicated when Parliament finally accepted in 1999 a controversial report of Justice Peter Mahon blaming the tragedy on Air New Zealand's failure to tell the pilots of a late change to computer navigation coordinates.

National MP Maurice Williamson, who tabled the report as Minister of Transport, said it was one of the proudest moments of his career.

But the eldest of the Captain Collins' four daughters, Kathryn Carter, believes Air NZ or the Government, as its main shareholder, should issue a clear apology for a stain left on the crew's reputation by the airline's previous attempts to blame the crash on pilot error.

Former chief air accidents inspector Ron Chippindale said his original report pinning the probable cause of the crash on an alleged decision of the captain to fly low toward an area of poor definition was still recognised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Mr Anderton noted that the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations had given Mr Mahon - who was denied a knighthood before he died in 1986 aged 62 - its top award for the excellence of the judge's report.

"They said it created a benchmark in looking further than the usual pilot-error argument and trying to find out in a very systematic way why this crash occurred," Mr Anderton said.

Jacinta Cassin, daughter of co-pilot Greg Cassin, said an apology would be "lovely but not expected".

- Additional reporting Juliet Rowan