20 Facts About Gordon Vette

Alwyn Gordon Vette ONZM was a New Zealand airline captain best known for his involvement in the Cessna 188 Pacific rescue and his research into the cause of the Air New Zealand Flight TE901 crash.

Gordon Vette spent five years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and 55 years as a commercial pilot.

Gordon Vette joined Air New Zealand as an engineering apprentice in 1948 at 15 years of age.

Gordon Vette was chosen as a check pilot and captain for the Lockheed L-188 Electra and Douglas DC-3, the Douglas DC-8, and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, as well as a flight instructor for the DC-10.

Gordon Vette left Air New Zealand as a result of their disapproval at his comments on the Mount Erebus Disaster.

Gordon Vette retired from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand in October 2003.

Gordon Vette agreed to help in the search for the lost Cessna.

Gordon Vette's DC-10 was not carrying any instruments designed for search and rescue, so the two pilots were forced to get creative.

Gordon Vette tried dumping 24,000 pounds of fuel from his own aircraft in the hope that Prochnow might be able to see it, but this proved to be unsuccessful.

Prochnow and Gordon Vette then compared the time at which each of them observed the sun to set, and the addition of this new information finally made it possible for the Cessna's position to be calculated.

The initial Transport Accident Investigation Commission report on the accident prepared by Chief Inspector of Air Accidents Ron Chippindale and released on 30 May 1980 initially blamed the crash on pilot error, but Gordon Vette challenged this finding.

Gordon Vette had trained Collins himself and found it unlikely that he would exhibit that level of negligence.

Gordon Vette hypothesized that the crash might be due to any combination of three factors: first, that the route had been changed from the open expanse of McMurdo Sound to right over Mt.

Unwilling to let the blame for the accident be unfairly assigned to the flight crew, Gordon Vette consulted with experts and conducted extensive research in order to discover the truth.

Gordon Vette served as an adviser to Mahon during the proceedings, and his findings proved especially influential.

Gordon Vette's career suffered, as his crusade for truth had ended friendships and caused conflicts with Air New Zealand, his employer at the time.

Gordon Vette was eventually driven to an early exit from the company he had worked for since 1948.

Gordon Vette published two books on the Mount Erebus Disaster: Impact Erebus in 1983 and Impact Erebus II with John MacDonald in 1999.

Gordon Vette was one of the first to suggest adding forward-looking capabilities to the GPWS, since the lack of such a function left the crew of Flight TE901 with a mere six seconds to react before they crashed into Mt.

Gordon Vette has received much appreciation and acclaim for his contributions to the aviation industry.