distance between Cape Hallett and McMurdo as 337 miles. On the facing
page 97 there is a print-out of the flight plan actually used on the
fatal flight which shows the correction made to the longitude, 166° 58'
east. It will shortly be mentioned that when that correction was made
the navigation section say it was thought to involve a minor movement of
only 2.1 miles or 10 minutes of longitude. Despite the very small change
that this could make to the track and distance between the two points a
re-calculation was made and entered into the computer programme as
188.5° (grid) and the distance 336 miles. Compared with the other
figures the difference seems minimal but it was still thought necessary
to assess it and it was done.


The Western Waypoint

The circumstances surrounding the use of the 164° 48' E figures were in
issue before the Royal Commission. It was suggested against the airline
they had not been introduced accidentally: that the movement of the
position 25 miles to the west had been deliberate. If that were so it
would seem that a re-calculation of track and distance would have been
needed and made both for the fuel plan and also as a check for purposes
of navigation. However, no re-calculation of track and distance was made
and entered with the 164° 48' co-ordinate. The figures which actually
appear for track and distance to that point remain precisely the track
and distance figures which were shown in the flight plan to the 166° 48'
point for the first flight in February 1977. For purposes of comparison
a calculation to the "false" waypoint was prepared and put before the
Royal Commission. It showed that a direct track from Cape Hallett to
that point is actually 191° and the distance 343 miles. The point is
referred to in paragraph 230 of the Report within a section headed "The