Air New Zealand plane fuselage on Mt Erebus

Only one portion of the fuselage of the Air New Zealand DC-10 remained intact on the icy slopes of Mt Erebus. Red and green flags respectively mark out the search area in a grid pattern and indicate the site of human remains. This method was used to identify and document finds of human remains and property.

Recovery operation begins

A break in the weather allowed the first members of the Erebus Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team to leave McMurdo Station at 8.30 a.m. (NZST)* on 3 December 1979. Deteriorating weather initially hampered efforts to get the remaining team members up to the site, and a blizzard later that evening prevented any work until early the following day. Bob Mitchell, the search and rescue coordinator leading the recovery operation, had flown in with the initial DVI team. But he returned to McMurdo prior to the blizzard and advised the media contingent that they hoped to recover more than the 50 to 70 bodies mentioned previously.

There was pressure to complete the recovery operation quickly because the ice runway at McMurdo would begin to thaw in mid-December, making it unusable by wheeled aircraft. This would greatly restrict the movement of aircraft, making it difficult to return bodies to New Zealand.

After the blizzard cleared the mountaineers on site broke the bridges that had formed above the crevasses and marked them with red flags (bodies and human remains were marked by green flags). The surveyors completed their grid pattern and the DVI teams began to search 30 m square grids over the wreckage area of approximately 700 by 120 m. They tagged, photographed and bagged bodies, remains and personal belongings with reference to the grid pattern. There were five DVI teams - each made up of two policemen, one mountaineer, and one photographer. McMurdo provided the men who acted as photographers.

Mitchell had planned for the DVI teams to work in 12-hour shifts, with a break offsite before returning. But their determination saw the men work between 15 and 20 hours a day for four days, with just short breaks onsite in their tents. The first bodies were transported back to a temporary mortuary at McMurdo by US Navy helicopters on 4 December, just hours after the start of the operation; the last followed on 10 December.

Eight of the 12 volunteers assisting US Navy Flight-Surgeon James Goodrum at the temporary mortuary at McMurdo were Americans stationed there. They volunteered in the hope this would limit the number of New Zealanders from Scott Base needed to handle the bodies of their countrymen.

Throughout this period the site investigation continued. It operated alongside, and where appropriate in concert with, the recovery operation. At the crash site itself the two teams shared food and accommodation, and assisted each other, for example when wreckage needed to be moved to uncover bodies. Back at McMurdo a police sergeant, flown in after the main police contingent to sort through belongings recovered from the site, passed on rolls of passengers' films for the US Navy to develop for investigators.

*On the day of the Erebus disaster there was a one-hour time difference between New Zealand and McMurdo Station. New Zealand was observing daylight saving time, which Scott Base and McMurdo Station did not begin observing until 1992/93. 

Next page: Site investigation and recovery operation conclude