• Howick and Pakuranga Times
“Everybody knew somebody who knew somebody,” he says.
“New Zealand is small enough that the event has seared itself on our psyche. The black smudge on the ice is still in our conscience.”
Mr Waugh is no stranger to aviation disaster anniversaries.
As honorary chaplain to the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (NZ Region), the Howick clergyman has officiated at 15 memorial services across the country commemorating eight of the nine major air accidents on New Zealand soil from 1938-63. His 11th aviation book is about to be published.
Although he has never written about Erebus, he initiated and helped lead the 20th and 25th anniversary services for the tragedy which were organised by the aviation guild.
“We felt those gatherings, or anniversary times, gave people an opportunity for people to reflect and remember,” he says.
“For some, the anniversaries are associated with great pain.
“It is not just an issue for the families involved but for all New Zealanders. Some of the people who went to those services were not necessarily related to anyone on the flight.”
About 500 people attended the plaque-laying service for the 1963 Kaimai crash, the country’s worst internal air disaster.
The NAC (New Zealand National Airways Corporation) DC3 aircraft crashed into the Bay of Plenty’s Kaimai Range, killing all 23 people who were on-board.
“They came to an isolated place between Matamata and Te Aroha,” Mr Waugh says. “People from all over the world came for 23 people.
“It cuts deep, a tragedy of national proportions, and Erebus is a very special anniversary. It brings it all to the surface.”
While the circumstances of the crash remain contentious, Mr Waugh says the tragedy is important to various parties – families of the people who died, the airline, the public.
“It belongs to all New Zealand.”
Mr Waugh and members of the independent aviation guild are not involved in the Erebus 30th commemoration ceremonies, which are being organised by Air New Zealand in Auckland, Christchurch and Antarctica.
“It does seem a little inappropriate that Air NZ is now organising the commemoration ceremonies when it is only one of the key interested parties,” he says.
He is, however, intending to take the initiative for a major Erebus memorial, which would feature the names of all those who perished in the crash.
The memorial at Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland, dedicated in 1980 on the first anniversary of the tragedy, has only the names of the 44 victims whose remains were not identified or recovered from Antarctica.
A plaque can be found at Auckland International Airport for the crew who died, and a sculpture has been placed at the airline’s Auckland headquarters.
As part of the 20th anniversary in 1999, the aviation guild put together a book which contains all the names and is displayed at St Matthew’s-in-the-City Church in central Auckland.
“But, to my mind, we have no major memorial for Erebus,” he says. “It needs a Government-appointed group to oversee it.”
The Erebus tragedy, Mr Waugh says, is seared on the consciousness of those New Zealanders who remember 1979.
“Like the Tangiwai rail disaster [1953] and the Napier earthquake [1931] – events which are still talked about – Erebus will be talked about for generations to come.”
Globally, it is considered to be one of aviation’s most controversial events. “A brand new airliner with excellent navigation equipment flies into a mountain on a sunny day. It is regarded worldwide as one of the more controversial aviation accidents, and a lot has been learned from it.”
• Mr Waugh, who is also senior pastor of East City Wesleyan Church in Botany, is the voluntary organiser of New Zealand’s 75th airline anniversary celebrations to be held in the South Island in December.
