9 episodes
White Silence Stuff | RNZ
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- History
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4.6 • 209 Ratings
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On November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand jet took off from Auckland Airport on a sightseeing trip to Antarctica. There were 257 people on board. Hours later everyone was dead. Somehow, the plane had flown directly into the Erebus volcano. This was a disaster that shattered a country’s psyche. In the decades since, grief gave way to blame, anger and recrimination. Who was responsible for so many deaths? Was there a cover-up? How could a plane just fly into a mountain? To mark the 40th anniversary of the disaster, Michael Wright and Katy Gosset explore why New Zealand’s deadliest disaster was also its most controversial; why a nation was incapable of moving on; and how it was captured by one famous phrase: ‘an orchestrated litany of lies’. White Silence will be released daily from November 8, 2019.
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Episode One - The break-in
On November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand DC10 took off from Auckland Airport on a sightseeing trip to Antarctica. It never returned. What do the families remember of that fateful day?
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Episode Two - The caravan
Whose fault was it? Investigators sift through the evidence and reach a shocking conclusion.
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Episode Three - All hell
With the pilots’ reputations in tatters, a second investigation into the crash unearths appalling mistakes and a sensational new theory for what caused the crash.
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Episode Four - The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock
‘An orchestrated litany of lies’ is ingrained into New Zealand’s collective consciousness. Justice Peter Mahon didn’t have to say that, but he did. It would prove the making of him, and the ruin.
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Episode Five - New World Order
In 1981, New Zealand was changing. The baby boomers had come of age, and the South African rugby tour was about to tear the country apart. When the Mahon report landed right in the middle of this, the country was ready for its first big conspiracy theory.
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Episode Six - White Silence
40 years after the Erebus disaster, there is still no national memorial to the victims and no consensus on exactly what happened that day in 1979. Why has New Zealand been so hopelessly unable to deal with its worst-ever disaster?
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Customer Reviews
A great series for a road trip
A really interesting story, well told and presented. It not only offers an in-depth analysis of the accident but gives an insight into why this has been such a vexing topic for the people of New Zealand.
Cut the unnecessary detail
I think there are better ways of summarising the complex information about waypoints. The stuff about altitude and white out isn’t as complicated as they think it is. Podcast could be about 2 or 3 episodes shorter if they cut the unnecessary details.
Tragic and riveting
Thank you for this brilliant series on the Mt Erebus tragedy. I was only nine when this happened and had no idea this accident occurred. Your podcast was absolutely riveting. I wasn’t sure whether to watch the video of the final seconds of the flight, but I did. It’s just heartbreaking watching the passengers enjoying themselves not knowing tragedy was about to strike. Thank you for educating me on this tragic event.