Were the Erebus pilots briefed by the RNZAF?

[oranmore]

Was anyone out there involved with Antarctic briefings in 1979?

Paul Holme's book on the Erebus accident evidently contains the following sentence at page 369: "We know that Lucas had been diligent in his preparation for the flight because he and Jim Collins had paid a visit to Operation Deep Freeze for a briefing a month before, a visit confirmed by Chippindale, according to ALPA investigator First Officer Peter Rhodes."

I thought I knew most things about the accident but this is the first time I've read anything about a separate air force briefing. If there was a second briefing by someone who knew all about sector whiteout, it would explain Captain Collins' comment, made about 30 minutes before impact, after he was told that McMurdo Station was covered in cloud: "very hard to tell the difference between the cloud and the ice".

[avenger]

I know someone who was i/c one of the prior flights South, he did not receive any briefing from the RNZAF.

[oranmore]

It looks as if an RNZAF briefing wasn't part of the plan in 1978 or 1979 (even though it should have been).

The first two flights in 1977 had briefings from the RNZAF / Op Deep Freeze, the plan being that thereafter AirNZ would thereafter 'brief itself'.

AirNZ arranged for its own briefing, which was held on 9 November 1979. This was attended by Capt Collins and F/O Cassin, but not F/O Lucas.

It looks as if F/O Lucas joined AirNZ in the mid 1970s. Before that, he appears to have spent quite a number of years in the RNZAF. The name "Brick Lucas" pops up in a website with old RNZAF photos, in photos going back to around the mid 1960s. So in 1979, F/O Lucas would have had plenty of existing contacts in the RNZAF, and could well have arranged to sit in on an Antarctic briefing and Capt Collins may well have tagged along.

If that's what happened, then it's unfortunate that F/O Lucas was back in the cabin when the decision was made to descend below cloud VMC.

[shorty]

Brick Lucas was a 14 Squadron Canberra jock during my time with them.