The issue of documentary evidence is given extended attention in a section of the Report headed, "Post-accident conduct of Air New Zealand" which is exclusively concerned with suggestions of possible items that might have been withheld from the Inquiry. The discussion is introduced at paragraph 342 by a statement that "This instruction by the chief executive for the collection of all Antarctica documents had some unfortunate repercussions". The observation is then developed by reference in particular to the work of Captain Gemmell, the technical flight manager for Air New Zealand, while assisting Mr Chippindale at the crash site.
Captain Gemmell had received instructions in the early hours of the morning of 29th November 1979 to travel to McMurdo in order to assist Mr Chippindale's investigation into the cause of the accident at the scene. However, by reason of weather conditions it was not possible for him to be taken by helicopter to the ice slope until 3 p.m. on 2nd December. Then, clad in protective clothing and roped to mountaineers, he assisted in a search for the in-flight recording equipment (consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the "black box") and the recovery of any other equipment or documents which might indicate how the accident had happened.
Three days earlier, at about 8.30 a.m. on the very morning after the accident, three mountaineer staff members at Scott Base had managed to get there in order to search for survivors. And Mr Woodford, who was one of them, has described the scene in a letter received by the Royal Commissioner during the public hearings. The letter, which is amplified in a affidavit put before this Court, is set out later in this judgment. Mr Woodford explained that when he got to the scene he found a black flight bag with Captain Collins' name printed on it. It was lying open on the snow and it was empty. Already material in the form of books and papers that had not been destroyed when the aircraft disintegrated on impact had been blown by winds over the ice-slope or into crevasses or covered by drifting snow. He pointed out that although the cockpit voice recorder had been located quite quickly when he was back at the crash site with the party from New Zealand on 2nd December the "black box" could not be found until later that evening after it had been decided to begin digging systematically for it. It was found buried under snow at a depth, he said, of 20 to 30 cms.