Graham Lister remembers the Erebus disaster

Please note that this page includes descriptions of the Erebus recovery operation that may be distressing for some readers.

Graham Lister shares recollections of his time as Air New Zealand liaison with the Police for the duration of the identification and repatriation phases of Operation Overdue.

I was reluctant for many years to talk about my secondment to the Auckland Medical School mortuary with Operation Overdue. However, I was asked to give a talk to a Probus group in Tauranga about 12 years ago. I called my address ‘My side of Erebus’. Being a first time, it was delivered with trepidation, however it was well received by those who attended. From this meeting I was subsequently approached by other groups to share my recollections of my time as Air New Zealand liaison with the Police for the duration of the identification and repatriation phases of the operation. Many years have now passed since the date 28 November 1979. At the time, the whole of New Zealand seemed to know someone personally, or of people who were on Flight TE901. With all the reports, publications, and scrutiny, most formed an uncompromising opinion as to who or what caused the tragedy. I do not want to personally get into the ‘Blame Game’, but I will share with you my involvement in Operation Overdue. I sincerely hope that what I have to say gives you an insight of what happened beyond the public domain.

For all of us involved it was life changing. But more importantly the challenges presented were dealt with in a truly professional and dignified manner. I don’t consider myself an expert in all things aviation. I have never held a pilot’s licence, but I did have 15 great years working for New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC) from 1963 to 1978 and another five years (post-merger) with Air New Zealand. I would classify myself as a lifetime aviation enthusiast and probably now a bit of a student of the Erebus disaster, from my time working in Police Operation Overdue for two and a half months at the Auckland Medical School mortuary through to the present day.

As background, let’s go back to 15 February 1977, when Air New Zealand promoted the first of the annual group of non-stop scenic flights to circuit the Ross Sea area of Antarctica. They were made popular by having notable scientists or explorers join the flights as commentators. The fourteenth of these flights was on 28 November 1979. That afternoon at 3.10 p.m., Gus Knox (a radio operator from the old flying boat days of both NAC and TEAL) in the Air New Zealand Head Office received a call from a fellow ‘ham operator’ who was the acting Postmaster at Scott Base. He reported that nothing had been heard from Flight 901 that day and there was some concern at the nearby American base at McMurdo Station. A C141 Starlifter transport aircraft and three helicopters were asked to keep a lookout for the DC10 airliner. A breakdown in radio communications was not uncommon between New Zealand and Antarctica. Contact had been made between the controllers at McMurdo and the DC10 when the airliner was still well to the north and not influenced by terrain or atmospherics.

Just after 7 p.m., when the DC10 was due back in Christchurch to refuel, a search and rescue alert phase was implemented. Just after midnight word was received that unidentifiable wreckage had been sighted and the location suggested was the slopes of Mount Erebus.

Prior to being transferred to North America in 1974, I was part of the newly formed Air Freight Division in the NAC Head Office, Wellington. I was responsible for the marketing of the airline’s air freight products. From 1974 through to mid-1978 I was posted to Los Angeles in a passenger sales and promotion role. I also took advantage of the opportunities to study distribution and service systems used by the American air freight carriers such as UPS and DHL, and more importantly that of Federal Express. I was in Memphis, Tennessee, having just observed the FedEx operation when I arrived back at the hotel and learned of the Erebus accident as it was first up on a TV news channel. My reaction was to rush down the corridor and bang on my colleague’s door. He joined me in my room, and we started surfing TV channels for any further details.

At about 9 a.m. (West Coast time) I phoned Air New Zealand’s Los Angeles office and was informed that an American tour group was on board Flight TE901 and that I knew a number of them. We took the first available flight out of Memphis to Los Angeles, arriving early afternoon. We were to fly back to Auckland that evening. I had to ‘Safe hand’ a box containing procedures formulated by the US federal authorities on Disaster Victim Recovery and Identification for Chief Inspector Ian Mills of the Auckland Police. As it turned out, Ian was the brother of Don Mills, one of my airline colleagues. These procedures had been developed by the US authorities following two fatal crashes within the United States that year. I travelled from LAX to AKL with this important box between my feet. Upon arrival I was ushered to the front door of the aircraft. The door went up, exposing a pair of black boots and then the blue trousers of a police officer waiting for the handover.

The difficult task of recovering remains from the crash site began. I was back at work in Auckland on Monday 3 December. A briefing at Air New Zealand Head Office confirmed that the decision had been made to transport all victims back to Auckland. The University Medical School mortuary opposite the Public Hospital was to be the receiving and processing centre. Air New Zealand was required to have a liaison person at the mortuary for the duration. I was given this role by Air New Zealand management.

I was joined at the mortuary by Joanne Smith, who was appointed as my personal secretary. Joanne was considered suitable as her father was a well-known Auckland veterinarian and it was thought she was best suited to adjust to this environment. I pointed out that my father was an electrician!

We both reported the next day to Police Inspector Jim Morgan, who was to lead the mortuary Police team. This group was in the process of being assembled from all around New Zealand and it was to include members of the Police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team.

The initial cadre recruited by the Police within its ranks numbered about 120. In addition to victim identification a number of other tasks had to be completed, including:

Liaison with families
Family and property enquiries
Recording movements and placement of the victims
Establishing records
Preparation for the Coroner
Repatriation of remains and/or possessions.

To support these tasks, personnel were recruited from many walks of life to help with the identification and repatriation of as many victims as possible. The Auckland Medical School mortuary was staffed over this period by:

Police DVI team – 29
Police support roles – 91
Pathologists – 6
Forensic dentists – 11
Embalmers – 12
Morticians – 5
Air New Zealand liaison – 4 (two representing airline unions)
Others – 2 (a jeweller and someone from the National Film Unit)

There was much to process even before the victims began arriving at the mortuary. In addition to the 200 New Zealanders who were on board, there were passengers from seven other nations that added to the complexity of the task at hand. A great deal of personal luggage, especially those items that belonged to overseas visitors, was still at various hotels in Auckland, and numerous vehicles had been left at Auckland airport. All had to be secured, identified and then returned to the next of kin or the consular authorities of the countries concerned.

Air New Zealand personnel (three or four at any one time) were allocated a small office, and we were basically told to keep out of the way. Joanne and I did a lot of observing and contemplating what we might be in for while reporting back to Head Office with updates. When the first convoy of refrigerated trucks arrived at Whenuapai air force base from Antarctica carrying the first of those recovered from the ice, the magnitude of the task hit home. By the time the final victims had arrived the size of the task of identification and then repatriation became apparent. It was going to be enormous.

People were so focused it was as if they were running on adrenaline and this is the way it seemed day after day. I remember one comment made that ‘thank God there were no children on board’. There was a strong characteristic odour of aviation fuel, hydraulic oil and burnt hydrocarbons that accompanied this hideous scene. You took the smell home with you every evening for a long time, hoping that it would be overcome and go away. Not only did I shower every morning before heading out the door but did so again the moment I stepped back into my home at the end of the day. The mortuary was kept scrupulously clean and well disinfected, which helped reduce, but not completely eliminate, the smell of aviation fuel etc. These were the recollections I will always remember.

After a couple of days Joanne and I were joined by Ian Hambly, a Senior Cabin Attendant with Air New Zealand. Ian was representing the 15-cabin crew as a union representative. Ian had previously served in the New Zealand Police. He helped greatly with our acceptance, as he was working with a number of former Police colleagues. Captain Bruce Crosbie represented the five-flight deck crew on behalf of the New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association (NZALPA).

We were invited to attend the Police briefing each morning. We took on board the procedures, tasks, and progress. It was quickly apparent that the identification process would rely heavily on personal effects, dental records and fingerprints, etc., and to a lesser degree visual means alone. The District Coroner, Allan Copeland dictated very strict criteria that had to be adhered to before he would sign the certificate and release the victim.

It became obvious that the Police was soon frustrated by the inevitable delays involved in working with Interpol and worldwide postal services in terms of receiving and accumulating items, namely dental records from distant points. I cautiously raised my hand to speak at a briefing meeting to explain to Inspector Morgan that Air New Zealand placed at his disposal our Network Communication System through our many offices as well as our Air Freight and Domestic Courier Pak System or Company Mail Service to speed up the transit of items. In one particular case we were made aware that the Police had been waiting for five days for a reply from Washington DC. Through the district sales representative of our Washington office, I secured the information the Police were seeking in one day. Immediately the barrier between the Police and us civilians was breached. We became part of police procedures and specific international communication, including the carriage of items to and from New Zealand as well as within the country. Air New Zealand obviously became the carrier of choice for movement of victims to points within New Zealand and overseas after release by the Coroner. With these new ways now employed, some of the American procedures were put aside.

Dentists and funeral directors had been brought in to assist. They became essential with their specialist roles. The mortuary staff did an amazing job reconstructing and colouring faces where physical identification could be undertaken, although you didn’t want to know what was covering what appeared to be a body.

Being ex-Los Angeles staff, I was asked to view a couple of victims as the business card of our Los Angeles sales representative was found on their bodies. In each case it was not the rep himself, but the cards confirmed that he had been conversing with them at some point and so they were most likely part of the industry tour group he had helped organise. Eventually I was able to identify one of the victims as our sales rep. I was given his passport to return, but I couldn’t return it in the condition it was found. I took it home and my wife carefully washed it to rid it of the smell of aviation fuel and enclosed it in blotting paper to dry and flatten it for a few days before returning it to California.

Another personal friend was with Cathay Pacific Airlines as its Sales Manager in Los Angeles. As much as I tried, I could not identify him by conventional means. One item that was used for identification was his wedding ring. He had not been long married, and his wedding ring was obviously new and very wide. This assisted with his identification. When it was passed to me it was noticeably out of shape. I paid to have it remade before returning it to his wife.

You did get personally involved and you did what was required to do, especially to ease the pain held by the next of kin, but you carried that pain as well. Three watches survived the crash impact. They were all the same brand. All had the single nylon type strap that looped through the back of the watch. One was still working, and its alarm would sound each day.

The entire body recovery and victim identification procedure was confined to a period of 11 weeks total from the time of the crash on Mt Erebus to the mass burial of the unidentifiable remains at Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland. A goal had been set for this process based on the American Airlines crash at Chicago O’Hare airport earlier that year. In the end the identification of Flight TE901 victims was achieved in a shorter time and moreover the identification rate at 83.3% was greater than achieved in Chicago. Of the 257 victims, 214 were positively identified. This was a remarkable achievement given the conditions on the crash site and distance from Auckland, whereas those in Chicago had everything at hand and in close proximity to the investigators.

Once identifications were confirmed, the rate of release by the Coroner was around 10 victims per weekday. Identification was confirmed by visual means when possible and on average using at least two of the following:

Dentistry
Jewellery
Clothing
Fingerprinting
Scars
Tattoos
Evidence of previous medical operations
Hair samples
Blood type.

Come Friday afternoon each week, the Police would invite us to the Police canteen at Auckland Headquarters, where we could ‘relax and relate’. This was a welcome opportunity to meet with everyone on an equal footing.

The post-traumatic stress suffered by the Body Recovery and Identification teams was recognised at the time and some personnel did suffer under the weight and intensity of their grim duty. The debriefing reports noted the need for officers in command of such operations to know how to recognise and deal with signs of stress within their staff and as such a rollover of Police personnel continually happened. Counselling was offered to us all if we wished.

A study was undertaken of the whole operation by the Department of Psychology at Victoria University, Wellington. This was completed in 1981. This study was designed to investigate a host of areas, including the psychological effects of stress arising from the Body Recovery and DVI work, to offer help where needed as well as obtain information that could be of use in the future. It took several more years for psychological support to become standard practice in the New Zealand Police.

One outcome of the whole operation was a recording system for Disaster Victim Identification that became a world leader in its time. It was adopted by a number of countries. While these methods were ground-breaking at the time, we must recognise the advances in worldwide communications with the internet and e-mail along with medical advancements, especially the use of DNA, technology that simply didn’t exist at the time.

My duty at the mortuary was completed by mid-February 1980 and I returned to Air New Zealand Head Office and resumed my position as Cargo Manager New Zealand with the airline.