About this episode
The episode explores the controversial Air New Zealand disaster of 1979 and its impact on the nation.
On November 28, 1979, an Air New Zealand airliner took off from Auckland Airport on a sightseeing trip to Antarctica. There were 257 people on board. Hours later everyone was dead. Somehow, the plane had flown directly into the Erebus volcano. This was a disaster that shattered a country’s psyche. In White Silence, Michael Wright and Katy Gosset explore why New Zealand’s deadliest disaster was also its most controversial; why a nation was incapable of moving on; and why it was captured by one famous phrase: ‘an orchestrated litany of lies’. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Topics covered
- Air New Zealand
- Erebus volcano
- disaster
- New Zealand history
Keywords
- disaster
- controversy
- psychological impact
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: White Silence
Places: Antarctica, Erebus, New Zealand’s
More episodes of White Silence
- Trailer: Quarantine Nation · March 3, 2026 · 3 min
- Episode Eight - The Apology · December 19, 2019 · 33 min
- Episode Seven - Playing Through · November 27, 2019 · 41 min
- Episode Six - White Silence · November 12, 2019 · 55 min
- Episode Five - New World Order · November 11, 2019 · 46 min
- Episode Four - The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock · November 10, 2019 · 48 min
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