Bells will toll for dead of Erebus

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Melted snow from Mt Erebus and water from New Zealand's highest peak are crossing paths for the 25th anniversary of the air disaster that traumatised the nation.

Bottles of water from snow scooped off the Antarctic volcano that claimed the lives of all 257 people on Air New Zealand sightseeing flight TE-901 on November 28, 1979, have been distributed for memorial services at this country's seven Anglican cathedrals.

Water from a stream on Aoraki-Mt Cook, on which more than 200 people have also died, will reverse the flow when sprinkled in memory of the Erebus victims at non-denominational ceremonies in Antarctica on the anniversary - a week tomorrow.

It was collected with the blessing of Ngai Tahu elders to be borne to the frozen continent next week by the Anglican Dean of Christchurch, Peter Beck, with Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary and Foreign Minister Phil Goff.

Weather permitting, Mr Goff and Mr Beck will fly by helicopter to a memorial cross near the Erebus crash site to lay a wreath on behalf of Air NZ, before rejoining Sir Edmund for services at Scott Base and nearby McMurdo Station.

The main focus of commemorations in this country will be a noon service at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell addressed by Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright.

She will also lead mourners in a wreath-laying ceremony at 4pm beside a mass grave at Waikumete Cemetery, resting place of 44 unidentified victims.

A simpler ceremony will be held at 10am at a memorial garden established at Auckland Airport three years ago by colleagues and union representatives of the 20 aircrew who died.

Maria Collins, widow of Erebus DC-10 captain Jim Collins, and Air NZ chairman John Palmer will give Bible readings at the cathedral service, which will be led by the Dean of Auckland, Richard Randerson.

Relatives of some of the 57 overseas tourists killed in the crash are expected to join those of many of the 200 New Zealanders who died.

The Rev Richard Waugh, chaplain of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators and an aviation historian, is co-ordinating the cathedral and cemetery services. He expects many more people than the 400 or so who attended a 20th anniversary commemoration in 1999.

A remembrance book usually encased beneath Erebus memorial windows at the St Matthew-in-the-City church will be taken to the cathedral for people to sign.

The cathedral's bells will ring at 12.48pm, the time a quarter of a century ago when an optical illusion called a whiteout sent the DC-10 smashing into a slope invisible to all, even though passengers' photos revealed the aircraft was flying in clear air beneath an overcast sky.

Mrs Collins' grief deepened when the chief air accident investigator of the time, Ron Chippindale, blamed pilot error but it was mitigated to some extent after a royal commission of inquiry by Justice Peter Mahon exonerated her husband.

Mr Waugh expects the 25th anniversary to be particularly significant as the last big commemorative occasion at which most close relatives of those killed on Erebus are likely to be still alive.

But he believes the disaster will continue to be commemorated for decades to come, and notes that a memorial service he organised last year for the 23 victims of the 1963 crash into the Kaimai Ranges by a National Airways Corporation DC-3 drew about 500 people. These included all but one of 39 children who lost parents in the crash.

"The ripples from an accident like this are just colossal," said Mr Waugh.

The Erebus crash had affected thousands of people - "it was a defining moment for the whole country".

A FRANTIC NIGHT, A GRIM JOURNEY

Former Guild of Air Pilots chairman Frank Roach remembers just where he was on the night of the disaster.

Mr Roach, an Air Force pilot at the time and now an Air NZ trainer, recalls taking calls at Whenuapai from a frantic sister of Captain Collins. She flatted with Mr Roach's wife-to-be and remains a close family friend.

Within days he was piloting a Hercules to Antarctica with disaster recovery workers on board, little knowing he would return with a macabre cargo of about 110 frozen bodies. He said the DC-10's fate made him extra wary of the weather, but the sky was clear enough to see a long black smear of wreckage over Erebus from almost 200km away.