Air New Zealand Flight 901 — November 1979 aviation accident in Antarctica
New Zealand's deadliest peacetime disaster and the deadliest aviation accident in Antarctica, killing all 257 aboard in 1979.
Key Facts
- Total fatalities
- 257 (237 passengers, 20 crew)
- Date of accident
- 28 November 1979
- Aircraft struck
- Mount Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica
- Departure airport
- Auckland Airport
- Royal Commission finding
- Navigational coordinates changed without crew notification
- Inquiry presided by
- Justice Peter Mahon
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Air New Zealand staff made an automatic correction to the flight path coordinates the night before the flight, rerouting the aircraft toward Mount Erebus rather than down McMurdo Sound. The flight crew were not informed of this change and believed their computer-directed path was as originally briefed, leading them to descend through cloud over terrain they did not expect.
On 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 departed Auckland on a scheduled Antarctic sightseeing flight. While descending through cloud over what the crew believed was McMurdo Sound, the aircraft flew into the slopes of Mount Erebus on Ross Island at approximately 1,465 metres, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members instantly.
A Royal Commission of Inquiry led by Justice Peter Mahon overturned the initial finding of pilot error, instead attributing the crash to the undisclosed coordinate change. Mahon's report accused Air New Zealand of presenting 'an orchestrated litany of lies,' prompting senior management changes. The Privy Council later ruled the conspiracy finding breached natural justice, but the disaster drove major reforms in airline safety procedures and transparency.