Thirty years after Captain Jim Collins died at Mt Erebus, his widow and four daughters are faced with having to decide which one of them will fly to the site of New Zealand's worst air disaster.

Air New Zealand has drawn a ballot to decide which five families of the 257 people who died in the Antarctica crash on November 28, 1979, will be represented at the memorial service on the 30th anniversary.

One seat had been allocated to the family of Mr Collins, but his daughter Kathryn Carter said they were yet to decide who would go.