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By Peter Rejcek
Americans honored for role in New Zealand air tragedy
30 years ago
Dave Bresnahan was the National Science Foundation (NSF)
representative at McMurdo Station on Nov. 28, 1979 when
the unthinkable happened.
Air New Zealand Flight 901, an Antarctic sightseeing
plane out of Auckland, had lost radio contact at about
1 p.m. Twelve hours later, not long after midnight on
Nov. 29, a U.S. Navy plane spotted debris on the lower
slopes of Mount Erebus, an active volcano on Ross Island.
Flight 901 had crashed into the side of the volcano and
disintegrated. All 257 passengers and crew died, making
it the worst national disaster in New Zealand history.
“My role in the response to the tragic event was
small compared to others,” said Bresnahan, who retired
from the NSF in 2007 after 40 years in the U.S. Antarctic
Program .
“I didn’t have difficulty recalling the event
at the ceremony,” he added. “The time that it
was difficult was the [25th] anniversary held at Scott
Base. Someone discovered I had been the NSF rep during
the crash and was at McMurdo again 25 years later …
Speaking that day at the ceremony at Scott Base was very
difficult.”
Bresnahan was one of 15 Americans recognized by the New
Zealand government for their involvement nearly 30 years
ago in the recovery of the Flight 901 victims and the
crash investigation during a ceremony on June 5 at the
New Zealand embassy in Washington, D.C.
Angela Gore, spokesperson for the New Zealand embassy
in Washington , said of the motivation behind the awards
ceremony: “It was about time that there was some
recognition for the courage and bravery of those people
who did undertake the recovery.
“The New Zealand Defence Force have been trying
to track down some of these people, and they haven’t
been very easy to find,” she added. A total of 40
Americans are eligible to receive a medal, Gore said,
and the New Zealand government, working from leads supplied
by the U.S. Navy, is still tracking down potential recipients.
A further 10 medals will be presented or issued separately
this year.
“Honestly, not all of them were interested. Some
of them are still fairly stressed from what they went
through on the Ice, but we think it’s only fitting
we present them with the medals to show how much we appreciate
their service,” Gore said.
Mark Penn, a uniformed New Zealand police sergeant in
November 1979 who was sent south to help in Operation
Overdue with a contingent of New Zealand police personnel,
spoke in candid detail about the difficult, two-week operation
on Mount Erebus.
“The surrounding area looked like a ploughed paddock
in snow,” Penn said during the medal ceremony. “Everything
had been ground up, with the look of paper-mâché,
and dispersed among this were human bodies and pieces
of bodies. It was a grim scene.”
The accident occurred the day before the 50th anniversary
of Adm. Richard E. Byrd’s historic flight over the
South Pole. A number of dignitaries were in McMurdo to
celebrate the achievement. Bresnahan had been escorting
the group around the station on Nov. 28, slipping away
when possible to check on the status of the Navy search
and rescue.
Word finally came about 1 a.m. on Nov 29 that the wreckage
had been found and there were no apparent survivors.
The Antarctic Sun, Nov. 28, 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nationalities of the victims:
200 - New Zealand
24 - Japan
22 - U.S.
6 - U.K.
2 - Canada
1 - Australia
1 - France
1 - Switzerland
“It is hard for those that have not been through
something like this, but I still remember that it was
a great relief to all concerned when we heard confirmation
that no one survived the impact of the crash. It was a
long and frustrating day searching for the plane, not
knowing if there was anyone out there that needed help,”
he recalled.
“I clearly remember walking back from [the communications
building] early in the morning the day following the crash,”
he added. “It was calm and quiet. Many people were
up and watched me walking back to my quarters. No one
said a word. Everyone knew.”
Billy-Ace Penguin Baker is a retired Navy radioman who
was at McMurdo that season. He provided communications
support during the SAR and subsequent recovery operation.
Before the New Zealand police arrived, it appeared the
Navy would play an even bigger role in the operation,
Baker recalled.
“It was pretty shocking,” said Baker, who did
not receive a medal. “Our medical department ordered
all of the chief petty officers into the galley. We were
going to be used for the triage. … Fortunately, we
didn’t have to do that. The people from New Zealand
came in and did that.”
Penn was the last searcher to leave the crash site. He
offered great praise for the help supplied by the Americans
who worked alongside the Kiwis.
“The support that you Americans, both U.S. Navy
personnel and civilians, gave us was simply magnificent,
and we could not have carried out our part of this operation
without your help,” he said. “Speaking personally,
I know that those of you who worked with us to the point
of exhaustion at the crash site toiled under those trying
conditions without complaint.”
Most of those Americans eligible for the medal were U.S.
Navy personnel, which handled most of the logistics for
the U.S. Antarctic Program from the 1950s to the 1990s,
when civilian contractors took over most science-support
duties from the military. New Zealand’s Scott Base
is located only a few kilometers from McMurdo Station.
The cause of the accident is still debated, though whiteout
conditions and alterations to the flight plan likely contributed
to the crash. The remains of Flight 901 were found a scant
445 meters above sea level on Erebus, which dominates
Ross Island at nearly 3,800 meters with its ever-present
plume of volcanic smoke.
Amazingly, the search and rescue party positively identified
213 victims during the recovery operation. The remains
of the 44 unidentified people are buried together in Waikumete
cemetery in west Auckland.
New Zealand Ambassador to the United States Roy Ferguson
said the date of Nov. 28, 1979 may not loom large in the
global consciousness, but every New Zealander still remembers
where he or she was that day. And New Zealand remembers
those who helped salve the wounds of the national tragedy.
“The efforts and conditions that these individuals
endured far exceeded the boundaries of what could be expected
in a search and rescue operation,” he said. “The
work was not only a danger to them but traumatic and exhausting.”
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Antarctic
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