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Updated: May 7, 2025
At this point it is necessary to explain the reference in that sub-paragraph to Captain Simpson; and then, if it be assumed that "the altered waypoint ... was thereafter maintained ... as an approved position", it is necessary to understand the reasons given by the Commissioner for the change back to Williams Field.
For purposes of comparison a calculation to the "false" waypoint was prepared and put before the Royal Commission. It showed that a direct track from Cape Hallett to that point is actually 191° and the distance 343 miles.
That finding is one of those directly challenged in the present proceedings. Advice of the Change A different matter was considered by the Commissioner in relation to the change made in November 1979 to move the waypoint back to the TACAN at Williams Field.
Erebus at the stipulated minimum height of 16,000 feet to the McMurdo waypoint. The co-ordinates of that waypoint had been written correctly into the flight plan as 77° 53' south latitude and 166° 48' east longitude.
As I say, I think this latter omission is capable of explanation but it is a material fact in favour of the Navigation Section which I cannot disregard, and it is the single reason why I refrain from making a positive finding that the alteration of the waypoint was intentional."
I must pay regard to the circumstance strongly urged upon me by counsel for the airline in their closing submissions, namely, that if the alteration was intentional then it was not accompanied by the normal realignment of the aircraft's heading so as to join up with the new waypoint.
So that finally when a print-out of the plan is obtained it will disclose not merely the geographical co-ordinates for each waypoint but the true track direction and the distance in nautical miles from one to the next.
Compared with the other figures the difference seems minimal but it was still thought necessary to assess it and it was done. The Western Waypoint The circumstances surrounding the use of the 164° 48' E figures were in issue before the Royal Commission.
These paragraphs occur in the context of a discussion of the change in the computer waypoint shortly before the flight and the failure to draw it to the attention of the flight crew.
During a period of fourteen months prior to the fatal flight Air New Zealand's ground computer had contained an incorrect geographical reference to the southern waypoint of the journey at McMurdo. Accordingly, in that period it was shown incorrectly on any computer print-outs of the flight plan.
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