Vette alleged that TE-901 encountered so-called “sector whiteout” (a Polar Whiteout that affects only one sector of terrain). Mahon partly based his conclusion on the theory introduced by a pilot for Air New Zealand’s Gordon Vette. Mahon (1981) argued that the Polar Whiteout conditions had deceived the pilots into believing that “the rising white terrain ahead was in fact quite flat and that it extended on for many miles”. Chippindale concluded that the accident was caused by descent in conditions of poor definition of the surface and horizon (as it usually is the case in the Polar Whiteouts conditions). However, Chippindale and Mahon understood the visibility-related consequences of Polar Whiteouts somewhat differently. Chippindale (1979) and the Justice of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, Peter Mahon (1981), both attributed this invisibility to Polar Whiteout phenomena. The investigators, the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents R. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) demonstrated that the TE-901 had descended from 17,000 feet (about 5,000 meters) to 1,500 feet (457 meters), but no one had ever seen a 12,444 feet (3794 meters) mountain directly in front of the plane. Nobody knew that actually TE-901 was approaching McMurdo station, flying over Lewis Bay, and that the plane was on a collision course with the active volcano Mount Erebus, the God of Darkness in Greek mythology. E verybody thought that TE-901 was flying over flat sea ice of the McMurdo Sound. Seventeen minutes before the crash, TE-901 captain Jim Collins requested permission to go below the cloud base in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), and the Mac Centre approved his request. However, the Mac Centre advised TE-901 that below 2000 feet (around 600 m) the visibility is 40 miles (more than 60 km). A low overcast was hanging over Ross Island. Instead, they planned to fly under a cloud base so that passengers could enjoy the wonders of the forbidden landscape below from the comfort of the plane. On the early afternoon on 28 November 1979, sightseeing Air New Zealand Flight 901 (TE-901) was approaching Ross Island, Antarctica. It explores other phenomena that could have led to the tragedy, namely spatial disorientation illusions. This article offers a discussion on whiteouts in general and in regards to the accident. Two investigations that followed both agreed that due to the Polar Whiteout the crewmembers of Flight 901 had not seen the mountain. All 237 passengers and 20 crewmembers perished on the impact. On 28 November 1979 on a sightseeing flight to Antarctica, the Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed on the slopes of Mount Erebus.
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