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The Erebus crash site - Source: 1983 Howard North -
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Graeme Booth was working in TVNZ's newsroom at the time of the Erebus disaster. He recalls that fateful day.
For me the Mount Erebus disaster began in the early evening of November 28 with a phone call to my home.
Back then I was police and emergency services reporter for TV ONE News in Auckland and the call was from one of my many contacts telling me that something had gone badly wrong with an Air New Zealand flight. He didn't know too many details except that the flight was to the South Pole and that it was seriously overdue.
I started phoning other contacts and it quickly became obvious that a major story involving a tragic event was unfolding. I was about to call the newsroom when my wife called out to say that a news flash was appearing on our television set. The grave announcement confirmed most of the facts I had already gleaned and it was obvious that the newsroom was already up with the play.
The phone rang. It was my boss, the late Terry Carter, head of the Auckland news bureau. Terry was the archetypical hard-nosed newsman and his message was succinct and to the point: "Get off the bloody phone and get in here - do you know about this situation involving the Air New Zealand plane?" I filled Terry in with a few details the newsroom didn't already have, then rushed into the office.
Those were the days when television channels closed down around 11.00pm (remember the Good Night Kiwi?) but on this night there was a major rugby match and TV ONE was staying on air well into the wee small hours, which meant that we could keep viewers briefed with details as they happened.
A camera crew had already gone to Auckland International Airport, from where flight 901 had started out with its complement of happy, excited passengers that morning. The atmosphere in the terminal was anything but joyous that night, with numerous anxious relatives and friends trying to find out what was happening.
It was obvious that in their hearts many knew that there could be only one result - their loved ones were dead. Many sat just stunned and others wept openly. The TV crew had the good taste not to push microphones in front of anyone to ask how they felt.
I was assigned to go to the Rescue Co-Ordination Centre, which in those days was based at the NAC building on the corner of Victoria and Hardinge Streets. Media relations were in the capable hands of Gerry Power, the head of public relations for the country's military services. Normally an ebullient person, Gerry's solemn face betrayed the strain and concern he and others were under that night.
We recorded a quick interview with Gerry and "top and tailed it" with a piece to camera. What viewers saw was me talking about where I was and what was happening, a short interview with Gerry, followed by me wrapping up the situation for the time being. Hunter Wells, one of my colleagues and now producer of TV ONE's Sunday programme, was put into the studio to act as a news presenter and did a fine job of it.
I slipped back to the office for a few minutes and then got a message that I was needed back at the Rescue Co-ordination Centre. There a grim-faced Gerry Power told the assembled media that the wreckage of the aircraft had been found on the slopes of a mountain none of us had heard of but which would soon become all to familiar to us - Mount Erebus.
After a day the story shifted its focus away from Auckland, as was to be expected. Later the bodies were flown back to Whenuapai airbase and I reported how they were taken to the mortuary for identification in a fleet of ambulances. I suspected at the time this was actually a front to ease the feelings of bereaved relatives, but went along with it. Later my suspicions were confirmed and the bodies were in fact conveyed in one large freezer truck. How else were they to do it?
Erebus ended for me as a reporter with my covering the funeral for the unidentified victims at Waikumete Cemetery. It was a deeply moving ceremony with leaders of various religious denominations working together. The memorial is just a few metres from Great North Road and often as I drive past I think of it and the unfortunate souls who were lost on that tragic flight.
