Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 12

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

It was supposed to be a picturesque and luxurious sightseeing tour over Antarctica. One filled with wonder and awe, in a tour that had cultivated a reputation for giving passengers the “trip of a lifetime.” But what began as an adventurous flight near Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano in the world, became one of New Zealand’s most catastrophic accidents. What really happened? And who was ultimately responsible? Meanwhile, President Carter had just lost the election to Ronald Regan, who announced the release of the hostages in Iran the same day he was inaugurated. Was this timing a coincidence, or did President Carter get a bad deal? Join us for the final episode of the series, Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew. Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our final episode of our series Mayhem, the 1970s you never knew. On November 28th, 1979, 257 adventurous travelers anticipated a day of sightseeing and drinking champagne and then they were never heard from again. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting. In 1977, Air New Zealand began offering sightseeing tours over Antarctica. These tours were marketed to people with money and wanderlust and might be considered an aviation equivalent to a luxury cruise, which, by the way, cruises boomed in popularity in the 1970s and were popularized by the 1975 TV show Love Boat.

These tours helped New Zealand develop a reputation as a prime tourist destination. In all their years of operation, over 10,000 people went on what some former passengers called the trip of a lifetime. The flights included gourmet meal service, a complimentary bar, in-flight entertainment, and commentary from world-famous naturalists. and commentary from world-famous naturalists. Air New Zealand purposely undersold the airplane so that passengers could get up and move about freely, being able to look out the windows on one side of the plane or the other. One tour flew near Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on planet Earth. A five-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to flying over an active volcano, many travelers were interested in seeing firsthand other types of natural phenomena. In the 1970s, volcanologists discovered the open lava lake inside Mount Erebus that they think

dates back to the early 1900s. We've included a picture of it in our podcast show notes if you want to see for yourself. Volcanoes emit gases through vents in the ground called fumaroles. When you have volcanoes and ice together, volcanic gases escape from the ground, which cause the nearby ice to melt, turn into vapor, and develop into tall towers called ice fumaroles. These huge sculpture-like towers occur naturally near Mount Erebus. In order to even qualify to fly passengers to Antarctica, pilots had to undergo special training. Captain Jim Collins and First Officer Greg Kasson began preparations for the 11-hour round-trip flight two weeks in advance, attending a mandatory flight qualification

briefing for the route. The men were given logs and information from previous flights to study. It was imperative that they have the correct route, as there were few, if any, visual cues to keep them on track. From above, Antarctica was mostly snow surrounded by water. The magnetic heading of the plane was absolutely essential on these sightseeing flights. The plane took off at 8 a.m., winging its way to Antarctica with excited passengers eager to learn more about the Earth's least visited continent. Here's Captain Collins. Now, Captain is very keen to see a great deal more down here, as indeed all of us are, I'm sure. So our intention is now to go towards the southwest.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the aircraft now is just over 10,000 feet, and we're looking straight into Mount Erebus. You can see a great plume of smoke up there from the crater, a very active volcano. The pilots, with over 19,000 flight hours between them, shuttled passengers away from Auckland, New Zealand, and toward Christchurch, where they planned to refuel and change the crew. Along the way, passengers with their cameras took photographs through the windows of the plane. The day was bright and clear, and there was no sense that this sightseeing tour would be any different than previous ones. As they circled closer to Mount Erebus, the pilots requested and were granted the usual permission to decrease their altitude to 2,000 feet. Suddenly, shockingly, alarms started sounding.

The five people in the cockpit must have had their hearts leap into their chest. What was going on? They were flying a safe distance above the ground. And then, before they even realized what was happening, every person on Flight 901 was dead. On the other side of the world, oblivious to the fate of Flight 901, Ronald Reagan was trying to unseat Jimmy Carter in his third quest to be elected president. You may know that prior to his political life, Reagan was a Hollywood actor. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, though, he decided that he wanted to join the military. His connections in Hollywood helped to create a special role for him that would serve the war effort, but also keep him safe.

role for him that would serve the war effort, but also keep him safe. You might be thinking that there's always been two Americas, one for regular folks and one for elite folks, rich folks, famous folks. And that might be one way to frame Reagan's service. Another might be that his on-screen talents set him apart from others who rushed to their country's defense, and thus it made sense to capitalize on his skill set. However you want to look at it, the Warner Brothers studio persuaded the Army Air Corps that they needed a film unit, and that Reagan was their man. The Army agreed, and with the assistance of a former FBI agent, William Guthrie, the Army expedited Reagan's admittance into this unit, where he joined 1,300 other men that Guthrie had selected. Reagan worked in the photographic unit, and his responsibilities included making instructional videos for different branches of the military, recording newsreels that were shown in movie theaters, and creating promotional materials for the Army Air Corps.

He made 400 instructional videos, in fact, including those for the B-52 bombers. As part of Reagan's job, he saw unedited documentary film material before it was reformatted for newsreels. Some of this material included the European Front and the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. included the European Front and the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. Reagan decided to steal some of the unedited film, and he later explained that he did so because he wanted evidence, should people ever deny that the Holocaust happened. After his World War II service, Reagan went back to acting, but felt compelled to blend his political interests with his acting career during what we now call the Red Scare.

The House on American Activities Committee, which operated from 1938 to 1975, was busy rooting out alleged communists in America in the 1950s, and Reagan wanted to be part of that effort. At the time, he was the president of the Screen Actors Guild, and the House Un-American Activities Committee was certain, and convinced him and others, that America had been infiltrated by communists, particularly in unions and guilds. As with the Lavender Scare of the 1940s through the 60s, which was similar in that Americans were panicked about an invasion of a group of people in specific workforces, mere allegations that someone was gay, like in the Lavender Scare, or a communist in the Red Scare, resulted in job terminations and blacklisting. Reagan was in favor of blacklisting, and he used his position to inform on Hollywood writers,

actors, and directors accused of communist sympathies. Reagan's codename was T-10, and he engaged in informing for the duration of his SAG presidency. Around this time, Reagan's politics shifted increasingly to the right. He was a Democrat and had even campaigned for President Harry Truman in 1948. Two years later, though, he rescinded his endorsement and began campaigning for Richard Nixon's run for California Senator. Reagan endorsed President Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and made over 200 speeches for Nixon's unsuccessful presidential bid of 1960. In 1966, Reagan ran for governor of California and won.

And two years later, he tried running for president, but lost that bid and instead was re-elected as governor of California in 1970. He tried to run again for the presidency in 1976. And finally, he was feeling more optimistic about his chances in the upcoming 1980 election. upcoming 1980 election. Seven Republican candidates participated in the 1980 Republican primary, but Reagan's top competitor was George H.W. Bush, who had worked in politics, namely as the head of the CIA, for years and was thus widely known. Reagan's initial campaign strategy was to let his name as an actor and his charisma do the work for him. He chose not to debate his competitors, and he considered his lead in the polls wide enough to exempt him from that sort of public engagement. But George H.W., he was coming on

strong in the race, so Reagan decided to change strategy. Reagan challenged HW to a debate in New Hampshire, which was initially sponsored by a local newspaper. Turns out, though, that that violated FEC campaign guidelines. A debate sponsored by a newspaper could not just be between a couple of candidates. So Reagan offered to foot the bill and pay for the debate himself instead of having it sponsored by the newspaper. But the newspaper was still in charge of moderating the debate, and they clearly wanted to highlight the top two candidates, Reagan and Bush. They had prominent places on the stage, while the other candidates were kind of like off to the side, which Reagan didn't think was fair. Reagan demanded that everyone be allowed to give

an opening statement, and the moderators balked. They had a format that they wanted to follow, and that was not it. And then this exchange happened. If we may have the first question, Mr. Green, for the question. You asked me if you could make an announcement first. And I asked you for permission to make an announcement myself. Would the sound man please turn Mr. Reagan's mic off for a minute? Is this on? Mr. Green, you turn on my mic. You asked for me if you would. I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green, you turn on my microphone. You ask for me if you...

I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green. The media had a field day with the clip of Reagan's frustrated outburst and frequently replayed it. This one line helped to clinch the victory of Reagan as the Republican candidate for the 1980 election. And his running mate? None other than his more moderate competitor, George H.W. Bush. The race was now a contest between President Carter and the Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. But the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis weighed heavily on Carter's mind. He didn't want to lose focus on it and spend time debating Ronald Reagan, but it became increasingly clear that he had no choice.

While Reagan had been in full campaign mode for months, and he had decades of practice performing for crowds and cameras on him from his time as an actor, Carter had none of that. Carter had promised during his election campaign against Ford that he would never tell a lie. And after the Watergate fiasco, the country found his honesty and plain-spokenness refreshing. But it wasn't enough this time. Reagan was full of humorous charm. While Carter addressed each issue the nation faced and how he would continue to work to solve those problems, people thought he seemed like a professor lecturing about material only he cared about.

Reagan's end of the debate question went to the American public. He looked into the camera and said, Would you say that you are better off now than you were four years ago? That sealed the election. Incumbent President Jimmy Carter lost badly. Ronald Reagan had a different plan to address the hostage situation. He wanted the hostages released, of course, but he wanted it to happen while he was president so that he, and not Carter, would get the credit. The Americans being held hostage in the Iranian embassy weren't the only victims of disaster in 1979. Flight 901 never came back to Christchurch, New Zealand as scheduled,

and they were not answering any attempts to contact them. Hours ticked on. Rescue aircraft was marshaled to try to locate the plane. Family members congregated at the airport waiting for news. There were really only a handful of places a large plane could make an emergency landing, and Flight 901 was nowhere to be found. Eventually, family members were told that the plane had most certainly run out of fuel at this point. Search and rescue aircraft continued their work, and at midnight, Flight 901 was spotted.

Piles of wreckage littered the side of Mount Erebus. News of the tragedy broke the following morning. Flight 901 had crashed, and the 237 passengers and 20 crew members on board were killed instantly. Calls immediately went out to police stations for volunteers to help with recovery efforts for what they named Operation Overdue. Crash investigators arrived on scene on November 30th, but they were pinned in their tents for a week due to terrible weather conditions. The cold helped to preserve the remains, the film inside the travelers' cameras and the flight recorder.

The hull of the plane itself lay in the snow like a crumpled soda can. When the weather finally broke, the investigators were able to meet their primary objective, locate and send for analysis the plane's data recorders, also known as the black boxes. That same day, the first crew of Disaster Victim Identification, DVI, team members were flown near the crash site where they jumped out of the helicopter and trekked their way to the debris field. Team members said that it was like jumping into the great white abyss. But there was another obstacle.

Nature. Specifically, birds. Birds that are a lot like the seagulls you might be picturing, except they live in Antarctica. And these birds were not afraid of people, and they were bound and determined to feast on the remains of the people who died. When rescuers tried to zip remains inside body bags, not even that kept the birds at bay. And as a way to thwart them, the DVI teams temporarily buried remains in the snow and ice.

The recovery operation was both difficult and harrowing. By December 10th, the teams had completed the site investigation, and they recovered 114 substantially intact bodies and 133 bags of human remains, along with countless personal belongings. bags of human remains, along with countless personal belongings. In New Zealand, Chief Inspector Jim Morgan led a team that undertook the grim task of victim identification. They worked tirelessly, and by December 21st, they had completed postmortems on all recovered bodies, managing to identify 213 of the 257 victims, an identification rate of nearly 83%, which was considered high compared to other air crashes. In the shadow of the pristine white wilderness of Antarctica, where the silence is as thick as the ice,

the crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 on Mount Erebus reverberated through the corridors of power far beyond the icy continent. This is not just the story of a tragedy. It's a narrative woven with secrecy, a battle for truth, and the relentless pursuit of justice in the face of overwhelming odds. At first, the narrative spun by officials was tragically simple. Pilot error, a misjudgment in the harshest of landscapes, leading to the deaths of 257 souls. But as the families of the lost grieved, they stumbled upon inconsistencies and half-truths that painted a much more complex and sinister picture. It wasn't just a story of a flight crew led astray, but of maps redrawn,

coordinates changed, and a company and government scrambling in the aftermath to direct the blame away from themselves. Justice Peter Mann stepped into this tale as the head of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, his investigation would peel back the layers of secrecy to reveal what he infamously described as an orchestrated litany of lies by Air New Zealand. Yet the cost of truth was high, and Mann himself became a casualty in the battle, his career ending in resignation and his findings contested and challenged by the airline and the government. In the silence of the Antarctic expanse, the stage was set for a tragedy that would haunt New Zealand for decades. that would haunt New Zealand for decades.

Flight 901 embarked on a sightseeing journey that promised breathtaking views, but as it descended into the white embrace of Antarctica, a series of fatal human errors and a phenomenon known as sector whiteout conspired against it. conspired against it. What was not immediately known was that the flight's coordinates had been altered without the knowledge of the flight crew. This crucial detail, a seemingly innocuous change in the flight path entered into the plane's navigation system, would draw the aircraft not safely over the ice as intended,

but directly towards the looming face of Mount Erebus. As the DC-10 descended into McMurdo Sound, the pilots found themselves in the grip of a polar mirage. The clear sky whiteout conditions created an illusion, a deceivingly uniform whiteness, where the sky blended with the snow-covered landscape, masking the horizon and cloaking the perilous slopes of Erebus as if they were an extension of the snow on the ground. In this disorienting visual trap, the mountain revealed itself, only when it was far too late for the pilots to react. Captain Jim Collins and his crew, seasoned but unprepared for such a treacherous optical illusion, believed that they were flying over flat terrain. As they peered out into the vast white, the ground proximity warning system blared its alarms,

but in the calm before the storm, there was no panic, only a routine call for go-round power. The navigational coordinates had been changed by the airline's navigation section. They believed they were making a minor adjustment to the flight's long-standing destination point. But due to a typing error made 14 months earlier, the coordinates shifted 27 nautical miles east. This change directed the flight path over Mount Erebus instead of over sea ice as the crew had been briefed. Unfortunately, the flight crew was not informed of this change, and on the morning of the

flight, they received the adjusted flight plan and entered the new coordinates into the onboard computer, leading to the tragic crash. leading to the tragic crash. Justice Mann found that Air New Zealand was directly involved in a conspiracy to whitewash the inquiry, and their lies were designed to cover up evidence and mislead investigators. They did not want the public to know that the disaster had in fact been the fault of their own employees. Mann's evidence of this conspiracy was based in part on untrue statements given about the sightseeing trip's routes flying directly over Mount Erebus, both the captain and first officer's homes being burglarized but only work papers stolen because that is not how burglaries normally

work, and a shredding spree, which airline executives embarked on immediately following the accident. Justice Mann was convinced that these actions pointed to Air New Zealand knowing that the typo in the flight route was the primary cause of the crash. Mann ordered Air New Zealand to pay the legal cost of the estates of the passengers, the New Zealand Airlines Pilot Association, and the legal cost of the estates of the pilot and co-pilot. On top of that, he ordered the company to pay $150,000, which is like $634,000 today for the government's legal fees. Air New Zealand appealed the decision, and they were successful. The Court of Appeals ruled that Mann had violated natural justice

because those he accused of wrongdoing didn't have an opportunity to defend themselves prior to him releasing the report. They also found that Mann had overstepped his authority by saying that the airline had orchestrated a litany of lies and that it was not in his lane to order restitution costs against the airline. It wasn't until 2019, on the 40th anniversary of the crash, that the government of New Zealand offered an official apology. In her statement, the Prime Minister read some information from the Royal Privy Council appeal that was never publicized. She said, in particular, the Privy Council said, and I quote, the Royal Commission report convincingly clears Captain Collins and First Officer Kassin of any suggestion that negligence

on their part had in any way contributed to the disaster. That is unchallenged, she said. Those findings stood then and they stand now. The pilots were not responsible for this tragedy, and I stand here today to state that again. But these were not the findings accepted by the government of the day. The government did not table the report in Parliament. Nearly 20 years went by before the report was finally tabled. That was wrong. It caused trauma on top of grief, and persecution on top of pain. and persecution on top of pain. Back in the tumultuous political world of the United States and Iran,

far away from the silent ice of Antarctica and the misty mountains of New Zealand, Ronald Reagan won the presidency. But still, the hostages had not been released from Tehran. The Carters' last Christmas in the White House had all the trappings of Christmas decor, an elaborate gingerbread house created by the White House chef, and an indoor tree bedecked in the Victorian theme Rosalind Carter had chosen. Tree branches were laden with lace and ribbons, dolls and jesters, clowns and fabric flowers, and more. The Carters' daughter, Amy, had a matching dress. But inside, the mood was not full of holiday cheer. The previous Christmas in 1979, President Carter and Amy Carter set out to light the outdoor

Christmas tree, and only the star and the blue lights on the state trees along the Pathway to Peace walkway. Carter explained that the tree would remain dark until the hostages were released. Except for the star, it remained unlit for the rest of 1979. President Carter said, Amy had lit 50 trees, one for each American hostage. We will turn on the rest of the lights when they come home. President Carter asked everyone to pray for their safe return. In 1980, President Carter decided to illuminate the outdoor Christmas tree for 417 seconds, symbolizing the total number of days the

American hostages were detained far from home. In his remarks to the crowd, President Carter said, The hostage families asked me to do this year the same thing we did last year, and this is just to light the star of hope and to hold the other lights unlit until the hostages come home. And they also asked me to ask all Americans to continue to pray for the lives and safety of our hostages and for their return to freedom. Recent evidence suggests that Reagan's campaign worked to delay the release of the hostages until after he took office on January 20, 1981, so that his first act as president would be announcing the hostages' departure from Iranian

airspace, which he did at a luncheon following his inauguration. Some 30 minutes ago, the planes bearing our prisoners left Iranian airspace. At the time, though, and in the following decades, reporters and others tried to piece together just how a few minutes into Reagan's inaugural address, the plane carrying hostages, who had been held for well over a year in Iran, was able to depart.

Ben Barnes was the youngest speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and the former lieutenant governor of Texas. In multiple interviews with the New York Times, Barnes made some grim confessions. His motivation, as he explained it, is that both he, age 85, and former President Carter, who in 2023 entered hospice care, celebrated his 99th birthday and lost his wife, are nearing the ends of their lives. Barnes said that history needs to know that this happened. I think it's so significant. And I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we've got to get it down some way. I just want history to reflect that Carter got a little bit of a bad deal about the hostages. He didn't have

a fighting chance with those hostages still in the embassy in Iran. The American public watched on a split screen the inauguration of President Reagan, and on the left side of the screen was a camera trained on hostages boarding a plane, while Reagan giving his speech filled the right half of the screen. A few minutes after Reagan's speech began, the plane carrying the hostages left Iran. George Will, who you might recognize as a leading conservative journalist and political commentator, George Will, who you might recognize as a leading conservative journalist and political commentator, participated in the live TV news coverage of Reagan's inauguration. His comments on ABC that morning revealed that the idea that it would take Reagan to set the country straight and save the hostages was embraced by Reagan supporters.

Here is George Will's exchange with news anchor Frank Reynolds. And George Will, a syndicated columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, and I must say a card-carrying conservative who has longed for this day for some time. George, you must be very, very pleased. Well, it is pleasing, and I think it's particularly pleasing to have this hostage crisis come as a kind of punctuation to the ending presidency and clearing the plate for the new presidency. And in a way, perhaps Ronald Reagan is unusually blessed in the sense that most men have to wait a while for their first achievement. An argument can be made that he's had his first achievement with presidential power

before he got presidential power, that it was the anticipation of his somewhat sterner position as revealed in his description of the Iranians as barbarians, that may have helped break the logjam here and bring the hostages home. The day after he left office, the Carters flew to West Germany to meet the hostages who were receiving medical attention at Wiesbaden Air Force Base. As we've seen throughout this series, the 1970s were one crisis after another. Inflation, stagflation, Vietnam, skyrocketing oil and gas prices, cults, kidnappings, assassinations, and political upheaval. And 1979 in particular was a year full of crises and headline-grabbing events. And here are some of the other things that happened. Margaret Thatcher became the first democratically elected woman prime minister in Britain.

Both she and Reagan were in favor of the free market and cutting social service programs to reduce big government. On the TV front, both Nickelodeon and ESPN debuted to lasting success. This might blow your mind if you've always gotten your music from internet downloads, but we didn't always have the ability to take our music with us. At least not until 1979. Sony released the Walkman, a large cassette tape player with a headphone jack, but no speaker. They were incredibly popular, and Sony sold over 200 million Walkmen. Pope John Paul II visited the Carter

White House, the first such visit. President Carter greeted the Pope in Polish, and the two met privately for an hour. Before a reception on the South Lawn, at which 6,000 guests greeted both men, President Carter offered the words, As human beings, each acting for justice in the present and striving together for a common future of peace and love. Let us not wait so long for ourselves and for you to meet again. Welcome to our country, new friend. Over the course of this series about the 1970s, an often overlooked decade, we've explored

man-made disasters like Watergate and Jonestown. We've learned all about the rise in pop culture that led to cinematic marvels, the start of gaming culture. And we've seen examples of humans who served themselves and their aspirations, while others attempted to help the world. We've heard about Fleetwood Mac and the development of personal computers, We've heard about Fleetwood Mac and the development of personal computers, 11-pound keyboards, and the significance of fancy watches on the wrists of astronauts. We learned about the tragic origin stories of the Twinkie defense and the adage, don't drink the Kool-Aid.

We delved into the history of the Vietnam War and what seemed to be a never-ending, revolving door of presidents and vice presidents. With our coverage of Roe v. Wade, massive inflation, and a presidential candidate who relied on his high polling and charisma to carry him into the White House, we see reverberations that some of the major headlines from more than 40 years ago are remarkably similar to those we see today. Thanks for joining me on this exploration of the mayhem of the 1970s. I hope you enjoyed it. What do you think? Should we do other decades? Let us know, and I'll see you next time. Let us know.

And I'll see you next time. The show is written and researched by Sharon McMahon, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reed, and Kari Anton. Our audio producer is Jenny Snyder, and it is executive produced and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love for you to hit the subscribe button, leave us a review, or share this episode on your favorite social media platform. All of those things help podcasters out so much. We'll see you again soon.