PREPARING supplies, equipment and clothing for Antarctic workers is an essential task that survival can depend on.
When the call came at 3am the day after Air New Zealand flight TE901 crashed into Mt Erebus, Kim Stevens pushed emotions aside and got on with the job.
Working at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (DSIR) Antarctic Division in Christchurch, the 22-year-old was responsible for food and husky supplies.
Under normal circumstances, people going to Antarctica were hand-picked and had at least six months to prepare and complete survival training.
For this tragedy, police investigators and recovery crews had to be kitted out at DSIR in three hours, a job which would normally take three days.
“There weren’t enough trained people to do the job on their own,” says Mrs Stevens.
“The DSIR workers knew the system of survival but they weren’t experienced in mass body recovery – and the police didn’t know either. They didn’t know about the clothing or making ice igloos, let alone searching for scattered bodies.”
When she was sourcing and preparing equipment, Mrs Stevens had to shut off her emotions and she knew what had to be done. Protective clothing was sorted into sizes and laid out on the ground. When the men arrived at 9am, the small team of DSIR employees fitted them out as best as possible.
“Imagine what was going through their minds.
“They are putting on all these woolly clothes, thermal undies and boots that they don’t even know if they’re going to fit. If they didn’t, their toes could drop off.”
There was no privacy. A sense of urgency and apprehension prevailed. Once the recovery crew members had their clothing, they were on a plane and gone.
The next task for the DSIR team was ordering and collecting 300 body bags.
These went on the next flight five hours later, but when recovery started Mrs Stevens had to quickly source special bags to contain frozen victims.
“I got them within hours. Maybe some designer said ‘get the machines running’, I don’t know.
“It’s amazing how people will come to the party in an emergency situation. People just click into another mode.”
More survival gear – including primus stoves and food – was sent to aid the recovery effort.
The crew camped in tents at the disaster site and had to work with snow blowing in their faces.
Information filtered back to DSIR staff about how difficult it was for police officers to cope with the trauma. Many of them returned to New Zealand early.
The mission went on for weeks and Mrs Stevens remembers the jobs that had to be done and the investigation winding down.
Now living in Botany, Mrs Stevens remains deeply affected by the disaster. “I have the satisfaction we all pulled together and did the best we could under the circumstances. November 28, 1979, will stay with me forever.”
Although she did not go to the disaster scene, she visited Antarctica in November 1978.
Mrs Stevens says it was warm then – minus 10 degrees Celsius – and she had the luxury of sleeping inside at Scott Base.
With years of experience in the travel industry, Mrs Stevens is writing a fictional novel about the lighter side of her journeys.
This story includes a chapter called Antarctic Antics, which is about her personal experiences in the icy continent.
She includes a small reference to the Mt Erebus disaster in it.
