Certificate of Historic Flight

item details

NameCertificate of Historic Flight

ProductionAir New Zealand Ltd.; creating agency; 1979; New Zealand

Classificationcertificates

Materialspaper, ink

Techniquesprinting

DimensionsOverall: 227mm (width), 330mm (height)

Registration NumberGH024298

Credit lineGift of Sheena Hudson, 2014

Overview

This Air New Zealand 'Certificate of Historic Flight' was prepared specially for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica on 21 November 1979, one week before the fatal crash of Air New Zealand flight 901 on Mt Erebus, Ross Island, on 28 November 1979. All 257 people on board were killed. It remains the worst civil disaster in New Zealand's history.

Sightseeing flights to Antarctica had started in February 1977 and were very successful.

The certificate includes the signature of passenger Sheena Hudson and the signature of G. White, the captain of the 11-hour return sightseeing flight on 21 November 1979. Sheena had 'an amazing flight and I was pretty shattered when the crash happened the next week. I had wanted to see Antarctica and it was magic'. The flight inspired her to apply as a general hand at Scott Base in 1985.