Air New Zealand Flight 901 departed on a sightseeing journey over Antarctica in November 1979, heading directly toward Mount Erebus — a 12,000-foot volcano — because someone had changed the flight coordinates without telling the crew.
Highlights
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Small, invisible errors in complex systems can be lethal
Someone changed the flight coordinates by 2 degrees the night before the flight. The crew was never informed. The plane flew directly into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people aboard.
Whiteout as metaphor — you can't avoid dangers you can't perceive
The crew couldn't see Mount Erebus because Antarctic whiteout conditions made the mountain invisible against the snow. They weren't negligent — they were operating in conditions that made the danger imperceptible.