Emotions flow as NZ pays homage

Emma Gould, partner of Murray White, at the Auckland service. Photo / Jason Dorday

New Zealanders were urged to put the Erebus controversy behind them as families mourned those lost there and at Perpignan at emotional ceremonies around the world yesterday.

Ceremonies were held in Auckland, Christchurch, France and at Scott Base in Antarctica to remember the 257 people who died when an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into Mt Erebus on November 28, 1979, and the seven who died when an Air NZ Airbus crashed off the coast of France on the same date a year ago.

At two ceremonies in Auckland and one in Christchurch the message from Air NZ's top executives was the same: another apology for the way the airline neglected to support grieving relatives at the time of the tragedy and an appeal to the nation to put the controversy behind it.

Chief executive Rob Fyfe said the Erebus pilot Jim Collins and First Officer Greg Cassin had been chosen to command Flight 901 because they were among the airline's best. Those lost at Perpignan were also the best in their field, he said, but the recent crash was handled very differently.

"It took the loss of 257 lives on this day 30 years ago to teach us the lessons in crisis management that we hope we never have to apply again."

He called for the controversy over blame to be set aside, saying there could be no single reason for the crash.

Family members of the 44 lost at Mt Erebus whose remains were never recovered or identified gathered for a service at the Erebus memorial at Waikumete Cemetery, West Auckland yesterday afternoon.

Judith Frith, daughter of passenger Geoffrey Buchanan, said the service was "beautiful".

She said it was "a very emotional time but it was just nice to be able as a family to grieve and share together".

In France, families of those killed in the Airbus crash stood on the Canet-en-Roussillon beach yesterday to watch the unveiling of a plaque of greenstone and local stone.

Residents of Perpignan watched as the grieving families and friends, of the five New Zealanders and two Germans who died, laid wreaths and flowers at monument.

The widows and their children also laid handmade cards, stories and drawings below the plaque.

Tracey Marsh, the widow of 35-year-old Christchurch flight engineer Noel Marsh, her baby Katie in a front pack, laid her hand on the greenstone inscribed with the seven names, a gesture believed by Maori to infuse the spirits of the living with the dead.

One by one other family members came forward to do the same.

Air NZ deputy chief executive Norm Thompson laid a wreath of seven red roses, marking the seven lost, yellow sunflowers and greenery.

The group then boarded two Coastguard vessels to be taken to a French naval vessel waiting beyond the breakwater at Canet which took them 7km off the coast to the crash site.

There they laid more wreaths and threw flowers into the sea.

Brave faces gave way to tears in the more private ceremony as three New Zealand widows - Tracey Marsh, Sally Cook, wife of Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58, and Jo Gyles, widow of engineer Mike Gyles, 49 - grieved alongside the widows of Norbert Kaeppel and Theodor Ketzer, two pilots from Germany's XL Airways who also died.

"It was an incredibly emotional 20 minutes," said Thompson. "Out on the water was quite special because it was just the families."

The families of the remaining two victims, pilot Brian Horrell, 52, and engineer Murray White, 37, did not travel to France for the ceremonies.

The night before the ceremonies, the families had a chance to thank the French authorities, who helped at the time of the tragedy, at a cocktail function in Perpignan.

Noel Marsh's sister Donna spent a year learning French so she could thank them.

Yesterday morning 20 white balloons were released at a service at the Erebus memorial garden at Auckland airport, each representing a crew member lost in the tragedy.

Fyfe promised the family members they would have the full support of Air NZ, not just around the 30th anniversary of Erebus "but in the days and months and years ahead".

Raewyn Clark's husband Grahame was an Air New Zealand crew member at the time of the crash, and was in the briefing room with the Erebus crew before the flight.

She helped set up support networks for staff and families , and helped establish the memorial garden.

"My concern was the aftermath and the way the families of the crew were treated," she said. "It was very calculating and managed, because grief and trauma can't be managed."

Six family members of Erebus victims travelled to Scott Base with Air NZ representatives. Plans to land at the crash site on Ross Island were postponed because of bad weather but another attempt will be made tomorrow.

The relatives attended a service at Scott Base.

Pip Collins, daughter of Erebus pilot Jim Collins, said it had been "incredibly special" to be in Antarctica.

She was "fatalistic" about making it to the scene tomorrow.

"If it doesn't happen, it wasn't meant to be."

'It's the call every airline CEO dreads'

Rob Fyfe's term as Air New Zealand chief executive has been grievously marked by the Perpignan tragedy and the memories it evoked of Flight TE901 to Erebus.

The loss of each life from TE901 left a gaping hole in the lives of so many more people. An empty chair at the dinner table that would never again be filled. The special moment that a child never gets to share with their mum or dad, brother or sister, grandmother or grandfather.

I can't turn the clock back but as we look forward, I would like to repeat my apology of a month ago and say sorry. Sorry to all those who lost a loved one or were affected by the tragedy and did not receive the support and compassion that they should have from Air New Zealand. It's hard to believe that a year ago to the day, as I was about to jump in the shower at the gym, I got the call telling me that one of our aircraft...had gone down in the Mediterranean Sea.

It's the call that every airline CEO dreads. The immediate burden felt overwhelming to me. I struggle to recall the details of those conversations over the next couple of hours.

Nothing we do can turn the clock back or alter what caused an accident. But how we can make a difference is how we support those who suffered the unimaginable loss of a dad or brother or colleague or best friend in tragic circumstances.

Like the Erebus tragedy, the A320 accident will see Air New Zealand learn lessons that we in the aviation industry will apply so that those who fly in future can fly more safely.

It's my profound hope that today...we as a nation are able to stop looking at the past and look to the future to how we as New Zealanders are able to best support those in our community who have suffered the loss of a loved one, whether it's a very private loss or a tragedy in a public arena.

'They wanted to see the beauty'

Mike Pero, mortgage broker and former Mt Cook Airlines pilot, wants to charter a Boeing 747 for relatives to travel to Antarctica.

I remember the day I heard the Erebus flight was overdue as clearly as if it were yesterday. I was a 19-year-old motorcycle mechanic and I was stunned. I knew there was no chance of landing an aircraft in those conditions.

It wrenched the hearts of all New Zealanders. It was not just a car accident; it was like the Wahine disaster, only bigger. This accident had such an impact on so many lives.

The way it was handled at the time meant that a lot of emotion was bottled up. There were too many unanswered questions.

I obviously opened a Pandora's box in suggesting a flight to Antarctica. I felt we should be helping those people who weren't lucky enough to be one of the six drawn in the ballot.

Flying down there could be a way of moving on. If we were involved in an air accident in Europe, we wouldn't stop flying there.

Perhaps Mt Erebus could be a no-go zone - but I am sure the families know that Antarctica is a huge, beautiful continent and that we are fascinated by it. Fellow New Zealanders might want the opportunity to see this place.

The passengers on Flight 901 were on that flight for a reason too. They wanted to see the beauty of the highest, coldest, windiest, largest continent in the world. They had a passion for it. Doesn't that indicate something?

'Erebus remains an open wound'

Sam Mahon is the son of Justice Peter Mahon, whose inquiry found Air NZ had denied responsibility with an 'orchestrated litany of lies'.

In 1978 I was flying Air New Zealand to London. We'd had a couple of false starts in Auckland and were two hours late by the time we got into the air aboard a new plane. At two in the morning the cabin lights came on and the captain explained that we'd been flying for the last half-hour with only one engine and that we would be making an unscheduled landing.

The Americans around me perked like meerkats. "Never going to fly this Mickey Mouse airline again," one of them announced. How unkind, I thought. How unforgiving. Because I assumed that whatever was wrong would shortly be fixed by a handy length of No 8 wire.

But he was right, of course, and it hurt our national pride to discover that our impeccable airline had been run like a suburban taxi service with most of its internal directives delivered over the phone.

Erebus and the Springbok tour both shook our implacable belief that in many small ways we are the best in the world. But while the tour scar eventually healed, Erebus remains an open wound in the New Zealand psyche, and it is so because Air New Zealand still refuses to accept full responsibility for what happened. Which is extraordinary given that the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council both upheld Justice Mahon's finding that the company, and not the pilots, was at fault. The final act in the Erebus affair needs still to be played out - an unconditional apology to the Collins family.