It is something that can be mentioned quite briefly. The Royal Commission Report has made it clear the phenomenon can result in a loss of horizon definition and depth perception and is a great hazard for those who fly in arctic or antarctic conditions. The Commissioner found that at the critical time "air crew had been deceived into believing that the rising white terrain ahead was in fact quite flat and that it extended on for many miles under the solid overcast". This danger is something well known to those who fly regularly in those areas. Unfortunately it is not so well known by others, and as the Commissioner stated in paragraph 165 it was not understood by any of those involved in this case. He said:
"So far as I understand the evidence, I do not believe that either the airline or Civil Aviation Division ever understood the term 'whiteout' to mean anything else than a snowstorm. I do not believe that they were ever aware, until they read the chief inspector's report, of the type of 'whiteout' which occurs in clear air, in calm conditions, and which creates this visual illusion which I have previously described and which is, without doubt, the most dangerous of all polar weather phenomena."
It would seem that if those at airline headquarters were unaware of the deceptive dangers of the whiteout phenomenon they could not have deliberately ignored it as a factor that should be taken into account in favour of the aircrew.
In paragraph 41 and following paragraphs there is reference to "what happened at the airline headquarters at Auckland when the occurrence of the disaster became first suspected and then known". It is explained that the navigation section became aware of the fact that when the McMurdo waypoint co-ordinates were corrected in November 1979 the movement was not one of 2.1 miles within the vicinity of Williams Field but a distance of 27 miles from longitude 164° 48' E; and that "by 30 November the occurrence of this mistake over the co-ordinates was known not only to the Flight Operations Division but also to the management of the airline. In particular it had been reported to the Chief Executive of Air New Zealand, Mr. M.R. Davis". At that point there follows the serious allegation in paragraph 45 already cited--