Luntz’s brief was to advise the Consortium on the twin subjects of whether inflation can be taken into account in assessing damages for future economic loss, and whether those damages can include earnings in the deceased person’s so-called “lost years ”, in light of Australian authorities such as Brazel v Annis-Brown 1 NSWLR 85 (NSWCA), Todorovic v Waller (1981) 150 CLR 402, Pennant Hills Restaurants Pty Ltd v Barrell Insurances Pty Ltd HCA 3 (1981) 145 CLR 625 and Fitch v Hyde-Cates (1982) 56 ALJR 270. Luntz was retained to advise on aspects of the Consortium’s claim for compensation for future financial losses, the law being in a state of flux and development on this issue at the time, and before action was commenced he was invited to attend a meeting of Consortium members in Auckland on 27 April 1981 “to consider the total situation and on-going action”. ![]() Separately, the Consortium - consisting of 199 claimants, including the families of most of the New Zealanders, some of the cabin crew and some of the foreigners on board - pursued its own litigation not only against Air New Zealand for failures in the route planning of Flight 901, failure to adequately train the pilots and for breaches of good aviation practice by the pilots, but also the Attorney General (actually the Ministry of Transport's civil aviation division) for failing to adequately monitor the planning and preparation of the flight. A Royal Commission under the auspices of Justice Peter Mahon of the New Zealand High Court exonerated the crew from blame and determined that “(t)he dominant cause of the disaster was the act of the airline in changing the computer track of the aircraft without telling the air crew”. Because of “a malevolent trick of the polar light”, the snow-covered mountain simply disappeared from view as you approached it and the pilots, thinking they were flying 43km to the west because of incorrect navigational co-ordinates, literally flew straight into it. On 28 November 1979, a DC10 passenger aircraft flight TE 901 owned and operated by Air New Zealand was engaged on a sightseeing expedition over the Antarctic when it flew into the side of 3795 metre-high Mt Erebus killing all 257 people on board. The conclusion was the accident was caused by a correction made to the route the night before the disaster, and they failed to inform pilot Captain Jim Collins and co-pilot Greg Cassin.In 1981, Luntz was retained to advise the Mt Erebus DC10 Passenger/Claimant’s Consortium on aspects of the Consortium’s civil claim for compensation following the Mt Erebus air disaster. The original investigation showed it was the pilot's fault, but people protested and it led to an inquiry into the crash. ![]() None of the 257 people on board the plane survived the crash. Because the weather conditions of the Antarctic were so bad (severely limiting visibility), and the crew believed they were following the original flight plan-the plane crashed straight into Mount Erebus. The flight's route had been changed without the crew's knowledge shortly before the plane took off. It was supposed to loop between Auckland, New Zealand, and Antarctica. It was a sightseeing flight to Antarctica. ![]() Debris from the DC-10's fuselage photographed in 2004.
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