is at this point that the two investigations diverged in terms of pilot
responsibility for the accident. The Commissioner was of the opinion
that until the last moment the pilots believed they were flying in clear
air; that they were deceived by a whiteout situation; and that it was
understandable that they flew on at 2000 and then 1500 feet. Mr.
Chippindale was aware of and spoke in his report about the whiteout
phenomenon, but after giving evidence before the Royal Commission for
eight days he still adhered to his conclusion of pilot error for reasons
he expressed (at p. 274) in the following way:

"I believe that the cause as it stands (in the Chief Inspector's
report) is reasonable. As I attempted to clarify last time the
pilot has descended to 2000 ft and evidently is unable to see
anything ahead. I say 'evidently' because there is a snow slope
leading to a mountain rising to 12 450 feet and that was directly
in front of him. He 'popped down', to use his own words, another
500 feet and continued to progress towards an ice cliff which is
300 feet high, the lower 50 per cent of which is solid and bare
rock. And still he didn't perceive anything to persuade him to
divert from his track. To me this indicates it was an area of poor
definition and as such he would not be able to discern what he
could expect to see had he been, as various people suppose,
believing that he was proceeding down the McMurdo Sound. The sea
ice is by no means uniform in texture and during his descent he
would have seen the nature of the sea ice--in fact the photos from
the passengers indicate that it had large breaks in its surface and
was quite easily discerned so therefore I believe at the end of his
descent to 2000 ft he was confronted with a very vague area in
front of him which he may or may not have believed was cloud, and
when descending a further 500 feet the view ahead of him would have