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Police Response to Disaster: Erebus, 1979

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...it was very difficult for our young police officers who may have handled the occasional sudden death to be confronted with 280 sudden deaths all at once. The young married people who were able to go home at the end of their shift and talk about other things, they didn't talk about the horrors of the mortuary, managed to cope quite well, but the young single people who returned to their flats which were largely unoccupied suffered some quite bad psychological trauma.

Superintendent Jim Morgan
[Hear extract from this interview]

Off-shore recovery operation

This crash was a different matter again from the Tangiwai and Wahine disasters in that it took place outside the New Zealand mainland in conditions far more severe than those of a domestic operation. It occurred on 28 November 1979 when Flight 901, an Air New Zealand sight-seeing flight over Antarctica, encountered conditions of white-out and crashed into Mt Erebus, near Scott Base, with the loss of all 257 aboard.

Since no life could be saved, the purpose of 'Operation Overdue' was to recover and identify the remains, which were spread over a wide area of the mountain. The operation was astonishingly successful considering the extreme geographical range and conditions on-site as well as the very limited communication possible with Scott Base.

As in the Wahine sinking, chance played a part in the successful conduct of the operation. Police Commissioner Walton had recently attended a conference in Australia where there had been discussion of a railway disaster at Glanville, NSW. The New South Wales Police had responded to this by creating a specialist disaster victim identification (DVI) team. Walton thought this was a good idea and created and trained such a team on his return. The Erebus disaster occurred only a few weeks later, in fact the day after a refresher course had been held.

The extraordinary conditions in Antarctica made the safety of the Search and Rescue team a main concern. The possibility of leaving the bodies in situ, rather than risking more lives, was dismissed partly because of strong pressure from Japan on behalf of a number of Japanese tourists among the dead. The team, drawn from very experienced mountain Search and Rescue units, included 11 police and 8 Federated Mountain Club members as well as support personnel. The RNZAF provided transport and Scott Base provided logistical support.

Telling relatives and identifying bodies

The recovery took until 9 December 1979. Meantime police and Air New Zealand had to handle inquiries from relatives. This was particularly difficult since few of the dead could be immediately identified. Flight TE 901 was classed as a domestic excursion flight, so passenger documentation was less rigorous than it would have been on an international flight. The frozen bodies and body parts were flown directly to Auckland, which had the only mortuary large enough to receive such a huge influx. To handle the arrival discreetly, transport from Whenuapai air force base to Auckland Hospital was by unmarked refrigerated trucks, rather than by ambulances or hearses.

The horrible job of identification took several weeks and was largely done by teams of pathologists, dentists and police. The mortuary team, including a number of women, was led by Inspector Jim Morgan, who subsequently collated and edited a report on the operation. Much of the task of dealing with relatives fell to police women. Record keeping had to be meticulous because of the number and fragmented state of the human remains that had to be identified to the satisfaction of the coroner. From a purely technical point of view the exercise was both innovative and highly successful with 83 percent of the deceased eventually identified, sometimes from pitifully small evidence such as a finger capable of yielding a print, or keys in a pocket.

There were some tragic discoveries by families who had not known that a member had intended to take the flight. Where possible families were to be dealt with by a single police member so that rapport was built up. The need for patience and taking time were stressed. This would make it easier to ask embarrassing questions if necessary to aid identification.

A great deal of luggage and numerous vehicles were left at Auckland Airport and at various hotels and motels, including those of overseas visitors on the flight. This all had to be secured, identified and returned to the next of kin or the consular authorities of the countries concerned.

World-leading victim identification procedure

The outcome of the whole event was a recording system for disaster victim identification that was a world leader in its time and was copied by a number of other countries. The central feature was that the scene was marked out in a grid pattern and all body parts were numbered according to the square in which they were located. This remained their identity until a name was established.

Effect of disasters on police

Also of world significance was work done by psychologist Professor A. J. W. Taylor of Victoria University of Wellington and psychiatrist Professor A. G. Frazer. They established that personnel involved in the gruesome tasks following a disaster, such as body recovery and identification, suffered trauma which entitled them to be included among the victims of the event and deserving of specialist support and treatment.

Purely technical and operational sophistication had advanced greatly since the Wahine disaster in 1968. A major operation could probably not have been mounted in Antarctica then. There is, however, also evidence of increased finesse in human relations. During the Tangiwai and Wahine events little, if any, consideration was given to the needs of police personnel. The job was to be done and people dealt with it as best they could without assistance. (There were complaints from the personnel at Tangiwai that they had given a great deal of overtime for about a fortnight with little recognition. A small gratuity was paid, but was taxed.)

In 1979 there was recognition of the personal distress suffered by the recovery and identification teams, some of whom broke down under their grim duty. Counselling was offered to all who wished for it and the debriefing report specifically noted the need for officers in command of such operations to know how to recognise and deal with the signs of stress in staff. It took several years more for psychological support to become standard practice in the New Zealand Police.

There was no official group recognition for the efforts of the police involved on this occasion, but Inspector R. S. Mitchell, leader of the body recovery team and Inspector Morgan, leader of the DVI team were both awarded the OBE specifically for their services in relation to this disaster.

Aftermath

The Police played a final role when Commissioner Walton, in consultation with the Solicitor-General advised the government against criminal prosecution arising from the crash on the grounds that, with the air-crew dead, it was unlikely that any conviction could be obtained against other parties. A Royal Commission under Justice Peter Mahon was, however, severely critical of Air New Zealand for a number of contributing factors.

See also: related audio files from Sound Archives.

Sources

The material for this section is based mainly on a folder of papers kindly lent to Susan Butterworth by retired Police Commissioner R. J. Walton, including police report Operation Overdue, the Police Role (Wellington, June 1980). Interview with R. J. Walton 26 January 2000. Also Hon P. T. Mahon, Report of the Royal Commission into the crash on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, of a DC10 aircraft operated by Air New Zealand Limited, 1981

See also the Erebus disaster page on the Christchurch City Libraries site.

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