Remembering Flight TE901

On 28 November 2009 the 30th anniversary of the Erebus disaster was commemorated with a service at Scott Base.  A projected visit to the Memorial Cross near the crash site by six relatives of those who died did not take place due to adverse weather conditions.  A service was held on 21 January 2010, with water from Aoraki Mt Cook being poured over the koru-shaped capsule containing messages, and the capsule was secured to the Memorial Cross.

On 16 February an RNZAF Boeing 757 carrying around 100 passengers, mostly family members of those lost in the Erebus disaster, travelled to Scott Base.  A koru was installed at Scott Base, with views to Mt Erebus and a memorial service was held.

From left: Water from Aoraki Mt Cook being poured over the site during the service. (© Rob McPhail). The koru capsule on Mt Erebus (© Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection). The koru installed at Scott Base with Mt Erebus behind (© Ross Land: K250 10/11).

The rock on which the koru is mounted has a plaque which reads:

This memorial was dedicated and blessed by the Very Reverend Peter Beck Dean of Christchurch on 16 February 2011

as a place of sacred memory.

He whenua tapu, he tohu manumahara.

For all those who have died in Antarctica.