is said:

"3.7 Some diagrams and maps issued at the route qualification
briefing could have been misleading in that they depicted a track
which passed to the true west of Ross Island over a sea level ice
shelf, whereas the flight planned track passed to the east over
high ground reaching to 12450 feet AMSL.

3.8 The briefing conducted by Air New Zealand Limited contained
omissions and inaccuracies which had not been detected by either
earlier participating aircrews or the supervising Airline
Inspectors."

So these various matters (also mentioned by the Commissioner) were well
within Mr Chippindale's knowledge. However he came to a final conclusion
that pilot error had been involved as a probable cause of the accident
while the Commissioner (who decided this was an incorrect finding) was
satisfied instead that the cause of the accident was not pilot error at
all. He said:

"393. In my opinion therefore, the single dominant and effective
cause of the disaster was the mistake made by those airline
officials who programmed the aircraft to fly directly at Mt. Erebus
and omitted to tell the aircrew. That mistake is directly
attributable, not so much to the persons who made it, but to the
incompetent administrative airline procedures which made the
mistake possible.

394. In my opinion, neither Captain Collins nor First Officer
Cassin nor the flight engineers made any error which contributed to