It has been explained that the Commissioner was satisfied that Captain
Collins had used the New Zealand Atlas to plot the last leg of the
flight path from Cape Hallett to McMurdo and may have used a chart of
his own for the same purpose. In addition there were his briefing
documents and those received by First Officer Cassin. Those received by
the latter have been discussed. The Commissioner held that they had not
been taken aboard the aircraft. But he was concerned with whatever else
may have been carried onto the DC10 by First Officer Cassin in his
flight bag; and about the contents of Captain Collin's flight bag which
he believed would include the atlas and briefing documents. In fact the
only evidence concerning the possible survival of the first officer's
flight bag, let alone its contents, was a name-tag which finally reached
Mrs Cassin through Captain Crosbie, the welfare representative. Since
there is no description of the contents and it has been held that the
briefing material was left behind anyway, the fate of the bag itself
would seem to be immaterial.
On the other hand it is known that after the accident Captain Collins'
bag was seen on Mt. Erebus. The matter has been mentioned. The bag did
not reach his widow as it would normally have done if it had been
received and returned to New Zealand and this fact is the focus of
attention in the Royal Commission report.
In order to examine the matter it will be remembered that the
mountaineer, Mr Woodford, arrived by helicopter searching for survivors
on the morning of 29th November. In the letter he sent to the Royal
Commission he said he found the bag then and: "My recollection is that
it was empty when I first inspected it. It certainly contained no
diaries or briefing material." Apparently the bag had been thrown from
the disintegrating aircraft at the time of impact and its contents lost
in the snow or scattered by winds before the arrival of the
mountaineers. But whatever the reason for their absence from the bag it
is the contents that matter in this case--not the flight bag itself. And
according to the letter they had already disappeared from the bag three
days before the New Zealand party arrived there. So like the bag of
First Officer Cassin it might be thought that this item too was
immaterial. However, it is discussed by the Commissioner in the
following way.
First there is listed a series of documents "which clearly had been
carried in the flight bag of Captain Collins" and which had not been
recovered. The items comprise the New Zealand Atlas and a chart; the
briefing documents; and the ring-binder notebook. Those three items
have been mentioned. And finally a topographical map issued on the
morning of the flight. The suggested significance of these various
documents is explained by reference to the view of counsel for the
Airline Pilots Association that they "would have tended to support the
proposition that Captain Collins had relied upon the incorrect
co-ordinates" (paragraph 344).
There follows reference to the blue envelope and the matter of Captain
Eden after which paragraph 349 speaks of the flight bag:
"Then, as the Inquiry proceeded, there were other queries raised.
It seemed that Captain Collins' flight bag had been discovered on
the crash site. It was a bag in which he was known to have carried
all his flight documents. It was said to have been empty when
found, a fact which was incidentally confirmed by a mountaineer who
had seen the flight bag before Captain Gemmell arrived at the crash
site. The flight bag was rectangular, and constructed of either
hard plastic or leather, and had the name of Captain Collins
stamped on it in gold letters. It was evidently undamaged."
There is mention as well of First Officer Cassin's flight bag and the
ring-binder notebook (both of which matters have now been discussed) and
then it is said in paragraph 353 that after the taking of evidence the
Commissioner asked counsel assisting the Commission to make inquiries
about the two flight bags "which had been located on the site but which
had not been returned to Mrs Collins or Mrs Cassin".
It appears from the following paragraph 354 that among others
interviewed by counsel or asked for comment upon this matter were Mr
Chippindale (the chief inspector of air accidents), and the senior
sergeant of police who had been in charge of the property collected from
the crash site when it was brought to McMurdo. It is said in that
paragraph that the police officer--
"... recollected either one or two flight bags among other property
awaiting packing for return to New Zealand. He said that personnel
from Air New Zealand had access to the store, as well as the chief
inspector, and the senior sergeant said that he thought that he had
given the flight bags to the chief inspector and that the chief
inspector was the sole person to whom he had released any property.
The chief inspector was then interviewed on 11 December 1980 by
telephone, being at that time in Australia, but he said that no
flight bags were ever handed to him."
Thus the inquiries that were made in this fashion were inconclusive.
However, the Commissioner was satisfied that--
"The two flight bags were lodged in the Police store at McMurdo and
would have been returned in due course to Mrs Collins and Mrs
Cassin by the Police. But they were taken away from the store by
someone and have not since been seen." (Paragraph 359 (1))
Then in the same context he said in sub-paragraph 359 (4):
"Captain Gemmell had brought back some quantity of documents with
him from Antarctica, and certain documents had been recovered from
him by First Officer Rhodes on behalf of the chief inspector."