The wreckage was finally located about 1:00am New Zealand time by a United States Navy search aircraft. At 10:00pm (New Zealand time), about thirty minutes after the DC-10 would have used the last of its fuel, the airline told reporters that it had to be assumed that the aircraft was lost. US search and rescue aircraft were put on standby. The aircraft altitude at the time of the collision was just 445 metres (1465ft).Īfter radio contact was lost, McMurdo Station in Antarctica, who had been in radio contact with the flight, kept trying to contact it, and finally informed Air New Zealand headquarters in Auckland that communication with the aircraft had been lost. The flight that day was being operated by the DC-10 registered ZK-NZP, which was just under 5 years old. On November 28, 1979, at 12:49pm local time, flight TE901 collided with Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. It was the 14th such flight operated by Air New Zealand. The service, for the purposes of Antarctic sightseeing, was operated with McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft and began in February 1977. The site has a memorial nearby and has been designated a Historical site in commemoration of the 257 people that died there.Īir New Zealand Flight TE901 was a non-scheduled passenger flight from Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to Antarctica and return. The co-ordinates for this crash site are an approximation as the site itself has been covered by snow and sleet and nothing really remains at the crash site as all wreckage was removed and taken back to New Zealand for the pending investigation following the accident.
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