TO ALL THE FAMILIES OF EREBUS, I AM SO SORRY FOR your loss. Like you, I have seen my family grieve through 40 years of anniversaries, articles, documentaries, exhibitions and debates. Having spent two years researching this book, I now realise that I was not alone—you were all there right beside me, whether you knew it or not. I felt the depth of your pain through the stories you shared with me over and again, and I realised this grief experience was not unique to my family. I saw that we each share a similar history, right down to the nitty-gritty, and I felt not so alone.
Some of you didn’t get your loved ones home. Not all of us had a body to bury. Many of you have told me first-hand how that became a roadblock in your grief process. For this added pain, I am truly sorry.
I have since been approached by several family members who felt ready to learn more. The most meaningful piece of information I came across in my research was the body number. This number relates to the grid sector location where my grandfather’s body was found at the crash site on Mount Erebus, and to the police team who recovered his body. As you now know, it is 15.3 / 2 / 4.
If you wish to find out the body number and grid location of your loved one, you can contact the New Zealand Police Museum in Porirua. They hold a record of the passengers and crew from Flight TE901 along with their assigned body numbers. All inquiries must come through their Official Information Act (OIA) request form, which can be found at: forms.police.govt.nz/oiarequest
To ensure your email goes to the correct place, you need to write MUSEUM in the enquiry field, before typing your request. You will need proof of your identity and of your relationship to the person you are inquiring about. There is no fee for family members to use this service.
Once you have the body number, you can determine where your loved one’s body was recovered. (Frank’s body number is 15.3 / 2 / 4, therefore he was found in grid 15.3.) In all my discussions with family members, this information has had the most significance, so I have included the grid as drawn by Greg Gilpin on the mountain. This grid was used to record the location of the bodies, and appears in Chapter 8.
In November 2019, the New Zealand Police Museum in Porirua is hosting an exhibition to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Erebus Disaster. This exhibition is expected to run for several years, and you are all welcome to attend. For further information, please visit: police.govt.nz/about-us/history-museum/museum