Case file · Declassified record
'An orchestrated litany of lies'
In April 1981 the Royal Commission on the Erebus crash, led by Justice Peter Mahon, cleared the pilots and blamed the changed coordinates, accusing Air New Zealand witnesses of 'an orchestrated litany of lies'.
1981 CE · -41.29, 174.78 · status: official
The account
The first official inquiry had blamed pilot error. Mahon found that documents had been destroyed and evidence shaped. In 1983 the Privy Council ruled that his finding of a conspiracy breached natural justice and went beyond the evidence, though his finding on the cause stood. The phrase became part of New Zealand's language, and the case is a rare example of an official cover-up claim tested in court.