Hi All,
I was the USAF Operations Officer at Christchurch when TE901 was lost.  I thought I would add what I remember even though it has been a number of years.  Coming in to the airport after lunch, I was informed that TE 901 had not been heard from and  there were a number of discussions both on and off the radio of possibilities.

The C-141 headed inbound to McMurdo behind TE901 was aware the flight was over due and when I was able to talk to them on the radio, we briefly discussed them doing a brief search of the area around Erebus.  C-141 flights to McMurdo were fuel critical departing Christchurch.  There were no alternate landing sites available and once past the "point of no return" (the point where they still had enough fuel to return to Christchurch) the aircraft and crew were committed to a landing at McMurdo regardless of the weather conditions.  Thus, this flight did not have sufficient fuel to spend any time searching the area.

The weather around Erebus had some very poor visibility at the time and I recall one of the crew telling me on the radio they weren't able to search, but once the weather lifts, they suspected the wreckage would be found on the back side of the volcano.  Back side being the far side from McMurdo and where the aircraft was heading.

This information was all passed along to the team in the Antarctic as they built their search patterns.  Unfortunately, when the aerial search teams were able to get to this area, they did find the wreckage.

Like some of life's events, this is one of those that you always remember where you were.

Thanks for an excellent compilation and site.

Doug Lynch
Port Orange, FL