It has been with a heavy degree of sadness that our country has been casting its mind back to the horror events of 1979 when an Air New Zealand jumbo jet plummeted into the side of Mt Erebus in Antarctica. To the country's great credit memorial services have been held this week at various places, including McMurdo Sound in Antarctica, to recall that the 28th of November this year is the 25th anniversary of the worst air disaster New Zealand has ever had.
The world of New Zealand sport was grimly connected with the crash in at least two ways. On the Saturday afternoon TV viewers around the country were watching coverage of Air New Zealand sponsored New Zealand Golf Open from Heretaunga in Upper Hutt. Late on that sunny afternoon word came through to the Air New Zealand officials who were at the course that one of their planes was 'missing.' The afternoons play ended sombrely and the TV One news, which followed, told the nation that a search was on in Antarctica. The evening's TV viewing carried on but several programmes of a comedic nature and light tone were taken off.
On that day I was travelling with producer Gavin Service with Graham Mourie's touring All Blacks in Italy. We were camped up in the Terminus Hotel in a town called Abano Terme, a spa and oasis town. It is not far from Rovigo where the All Blacks v Italy game was to be played on Saturday afternoon local time.
Those were the days before everyone carried personal cell phones and before instant communications around the world. Accordingly, to check from Italy that all was in place concerning circuit and TV satellite bookings back home Gavin Service woke up in the hotel and phoned back to New Zealand. He recalls it was about mid-morning in Italy when he called. "I got on the blower to the TVNZ producer at Avalon in Wellington. His name was Ian Walter and he told me the news that the plane on a tourist flight over the ice had gone missing. A lot of changes in programming were going on and TV1 was not going to close down at its normal time of 11p.m. It was going to stay on air until confirmed news had come through from the police. But Ian told me the news looked grim."
Service then came to my room and told me what had happened. If 250 people were going to be confirmed dead we decided that we ought to see whether the All Black team knew or not. Downstairs we trooped to Manager Russ Thomas's room. His reaction was of course one of great sadness. He had not been talking to anyone at home so what we were conveying to him about was 'news' of the worst kind. He thanked us. We were about to depart when he called Gavin and I back. "Let's keep this news to ourselves at the moment," he said, "there's bound to be people on that plane who our players will know. We'll tell the team of the crash after the game."
At the ground Gavin checked again on our 'four-wire' circuit to New Zealand and he recalls it was Reg Milson who was on deck in the Master Control room at Avalon. Reg told us that it had just been announced that what was thought to be wreckage of a plane had been sighted in Antarctica. "Now everyone is waiting to hear about survivors," said Reg.
The match between Italy and New Zealand was played at Stadio Battaglini in Rovigo. The All Blacks won by 18-12. Thinking back now I can hardly remember anything about the action at all. Doing the commentary live back to New Zealand that day was bizarre. In the moments before kick off down the communication wire I could hear
Newsreader Bill McCarthy, in a chilling voice, telling the country what was known at that time. He assured people that the station would be staying on air all night if necessary.
Afterwards in Italy the All Black team went by bus back to their hotel. Somewhere along the way they had the news of the crash conveyed to them. By that hour, late in the afternoon in Rovigo and early in the morning in New Zealand, the Erebus awfulness had been confirmed. There were no survivors. It was an eerie, empty feeling to try and get ones head around knowing a national disaster of the worst kind had happened in our country and we were all so far away.
In the days that followed great was the devastation which surrounded our country. Overnight Air New Zealand made a decision to carry on with the last day of their golf tournament but by the time play started on the final day all signage denoting the company had disappeared from around the tees and greens. One could understand there was nothing for them to celebrate or promote on a worldwide TV audience on that day.
And for the All Black team in Italy there was indeed a direct connection with knowing someone on the plane. The highly talented Auckland winger Dave Palmer had been an outside chance for All Black selection over the previous couple of years. A fine University winger he was a very popular man, well known to many of the touring team. Palmer had accepted a ticket on the ill-fated flight from his father-in-law. They both died, as did another son-in-law. That of course tragically left three widows from the same family.
The above connections and story are but two of thousands, which will be repeated and recounted during this week, as one of the blackest and saddest days of New Zealand history, is recalled. The main focus of course will appropriately be in the memorial services being held on the ice at McMurdo Sound, but a touring party of All Blacks from 25 years ago will be also thinking back to where they were on that fateful day - a day when they weren't told of their homeland's horror until the referee's final whistle had blown.
