• Howick and Botany Times
A memorial plaque was unveiled in the marina at the French town of Le Canet-en-Roussillon before a navy boat took family members to the crash site 7km out at sea.
Captain Brian Horrell, of Howick, and aircraft engineer Murray White, from Pakuranga, lost their lives in the crash.
However, members of their families did not travel to France for the ceremonies.
Mr Horrell’s wife Shelley and Mr White’s partner Emma Gould attended a memorial service in Auckland, which also remembered those who lost their lives in the Mt Erebus tragedy 30 years ago.
Christchurch engineers Michael Gyles and Noel Marsh, Civil Aviation air-worthiness inspector Jeremy Cook and two German pilots who were flying the aircraft also died in last year’s crash.
It was being flown by XL to Frankfurt where it was due to be handed back to Air NZ for a ferry flight back to Aotearoa.
The Air NZ staff members were on-board as observers on the pre-acceptance flight.
• Services were held at Scott Base, Auckland and Christchurch over the weekend for the 257 people who perished when the Air NZ DC10 crashed in Antarctica on November 28, 1979, as well as the seven who died off the French coast on the same date a year ago.
The airline is now working with the Government and Antarctica New Zealand to explore opportunities for more representatives of families lost in the Erebus tragedy to visit the accident scene.
Six next of kin went to Antarctica for the weekend’s 30th anniversary commemoration.
Captain David Morgan, general manager of airline operations and safety, says the visit by the six family representatives has demonstrated that the opportunity to be in Antarctica can provide families of the 257 people lost with a significant step in the healing and grieving process.
A final decision on whether there are more trips for family representatives ultimately rests with the Government and Antarctica New Zealand, he says.
“If their view is that further trips are not practical, we will turn our attention to discussing with the Government the opportunity for family representatives to fly over Antarctica.” As Air NZ no longer has the experience of flying to Antarctica, Mr Morgan says an option that may be open to the Government is to use the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Boeing 757s.
