Air NZ flight path shocks US navigator
Realising the plane was heading straight for Erebus, he urged ‘call them back now’
AUS navigator has revealed for the first time his panicked alert to the crew of the doomed Air NZ flight to Antarctica. First lieutenant Marlin Knock was flying 40 minutes behind Flight 901 on a C-141 Starlifter on Wednesday, November 28 1979.
As they reached Antarctica, both pilots were in regular contact. But when Knock plotted the Air New Zealand DC10 course, he was shocked to see they their path was taking them towards the 3800m high Erebus.
“I had realised [was] they were headed straight for the mountain going down,” says Knock.
Forty years later he says his heart still races when he recalls urging his crew on the flight deck to “call them back now”.
Moments before the crash, Knock said, his crew was talking with the Air New Zealand crew, asking how the flight was. “They said ‘well we’re here now and we’re flying, but it’s overcast over the area’. So our guys go: ‘Where are you?’
“They gave me a position, which I plotted and they said they were descending to 5000ft [1500m]. Which made my heart stop . . . I went ‘they’re pretty close to Erebus.’ I said ‘call them back, call them back now’.
“I said ‘they’re headed towards the mountain and they’re descending. There’s no way they’re going to make it’.
“That’s when they got back on the horn. One of my pilots called; we got no answer. [I was] in shock, pretty much.
“I knew that they were gone, but there was no proof of it. But I had this feeling, and I was like ‘I can’t believe this’.
“When we landed [at McMurdo Base], we talked to the tower. We said: ‘have you heard anything from them’? They said no.
“They said ‘ we’re going to need some help. We think they’ve . . .’ And I said ‘I think I know’.
“I brought in an aeronautical chart. I put a little mark on the chart, saying ‘here’s where they were, and the direction, whatever. Here’s where I think you’re going to find them’.
“Pilots use radio aids to figure out approximately where they are. They do not have the charts. They don’t have the terrain charts,” Knock said.
“They have what’s called the aerial knowledge of where they are in the whole works . . . But as far as being able to plot it on a chart, I don’t believe they had a chance.”
I said ‘they’re headed towards the mountain and they’re descending. There’s no way they’re going to make it’. Marlin Knock