A new Air New Zealand safety video is out and although well done as usual, has angered many Kiwis. Why? Flight 901.
Check out the new safety video below. It is filmed in Antarctica and features stunning scenery highlighting the beauty of local wildlife and terrain. The video features Hollywood actor Adrian Grenier (who starred in this series called Entourage I’ve never watched but I remember as Anne Hathaway’s boyfriend in The Devil Wears Prada, one of my favorite movies…) and Kiwi scientists working at Scott Base in Antarctica.
Air New Zealand calls its “world’s coolest safety video,” with cool being a double entendre. But many expressed outrage over the new video, calling in insensitive to victims of Flight 901.
I didn’t know what “Flight 901” was before watching the video, but I do now. NZ901 was a Air New Zealand Antarctic sightseeing flight that operated from 1977-79. It would leave Auckland, fly for a few hours over Antarctica, then return to Christchurch. But on November 28, 1979, NZ901, operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, slammed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica. All 237 passengers and 10 crew members onboard were killed. A mix of pilot error and last-minute changes to the flight plan were blamed for the crash.
Air New Zealand was accused of trying to hide its faults and obstruct the investigation. And although nearly 40 years have passed, the new video stirred up many raw emotions across New Zealand.
It is gutting to my family that Air New Zealand has so willingly chosen the very place my grandfather died to detail their safety procedures. Why? Because your administrative procedures caused your Air Nz plane to fly into a mountain with my grandfather on it. #Erebus
— KateOnTheGo (@KateOnTheGo) January 28, 2018
Air New Zealand claims it contacted as many families as it could while producing the video and received broad support for their new safety video.
CONCLUSION
I understand why many are offended over the new safety video. Antarctica is treated as a winter wonderland or playground, almost trivializing the loss of life on NZ901. However, I ultimately do not view the safety video as insensitive…instead, I believe the video highlights the good work that is going on in Antarctica and the beauty of the land. That, to me, does not trivialize lost life. What do you think?
I was a flight attendant when that Air New Zealand DC-10 slammed into Mount Erebus and recall how shocked my colleagues and I were that such a flight would operate to such a dangerous part of the world.
When recovery teams reached the crash site, where everything was smashed into a million pieces, they found – heartbreakingly – the unmarked body of one of the stewardesses, lying in the snow and looking as though she was merely asleep. It was assumed that somehow she was hurled from the plane and escaped the total destruction suffered by all the others on board. That detail has stayed with me all these years…
It surprises me that Air New Zealand would produce such a video and fully understand why the families and friends of those lost aboard flight 901 would be hurt and upset.
I feel terrible for families that lost their loved ones. Aviation safety has come a long way in 40 years though and complaining that an entire continent should be off limits for filming a safety video seems to be extreme.
Re the video itself, the scenery is stunning and I get they are trying to make the video compelling enough to watch so you get the safety tips. Even though I liked it, it is a bit disjointed and the message is not clear – is it a safety, nature or historical video? The safety instructions pop up all over the place and while I know what I am supposed to do from experience, if I was an infrequent flyer or a kid, I’m not entirely sure I would remember the instructions in an emergency as presented. Just my 0.02.
The crash was very shocking to Kiwis and Aussies. Those flights were quite popular and both Air NZ and Qantas ran them every summer.
IIRC, the crash had one direct cause and a contributing factor. 1 There was a data entry error in the flight data software, leading the pilots to believe they were 30 miles from were they actually were ( and consequently on a direct path to slam into Erebus). 2 The commercial pressure to give passengers a great view ( these flights were not cheap) , led the flight crew to descend to a much lower altitude in white-out conditions.
The video is insensitive. Perhaps the creative people were unaware of the crash but the responsive AIR NZ execs should have understood that this would touch a raw nerve and consequently canned the idea.
Now we can’t shoot video where people have died because of airlines… so that eliminates most of the world.
Would people be mad if AA or another US carrier had a shot of a plane flying by the Freedom Tower?
I feel like as a whole, people would see it as a tribute. But of course, the minority of offended people will yell the loudest.
Oh please! That an airline didn’t think twice about filming at a location where it had its deadliest incident is quite pathetic. The trouble is much less than one airline shot a film where a plane crashed but that the airline filmed where one of its planes went down.
I’ve never been to New Zealand but I instantly made the connection between NZ and Antartica, and their fatal crash. I fully understand that relatives would be upset about it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2993852/Air-New-Zealand-apology-30-years-after-Erebus-tragedy
This is a link to Air NZ’s apology to families.
I personally don’t believe the video is insensitive. I like to think the people on that plane thought Antarctica was so beautiful that pictures in books weren’t enough. They had to go and see it. The video highlights that awe inspiring beauty. Apart from the fact it is Antarctica I don’t see any link to the Erebus crash. I’d be surprised if there’s anyone working at Air NZ from that era, in which case it feels like I’m blaming a daughter/son for mistakes their parents made. Aviation has come a long way in terms of safety and I do believe Air NZ are one of the safest airlines out there. I have no issues with this video.