“However, there is not sufficient evidence to justify any finding on my part that Captain Gemmell recovered documents from Antarctica which were relevant to the fatal flight, and which he did not account for to the proper authorities.”

At the conclusion of this section of the Report the Commissioner said that he could “quite understand the difficulty in recovering loose documents from this desolate mountain side, although the heavy atlas”, he said, “was not in this category”.  But he stated that an opportunity had been “created for people in the airline to get rid of documents which might seem to implicate airline officials as being responsible for the disaster”.  And he spoke of all these matters in terms of “justifiable suspicion”.

The condition of Captain Collins’ flight bag when it was first seen by Mr Woodford had already been mentioned.  His letter dated 5th December 1980 was written immediately after some cross-examination of Captain Gemmell had been given widespread publicity and on Monday 8th December 1980 Captain Gemmell was still giving evidence.  By then he was under cross-examination by counsel assisting the Commission and the latter proceeded to read into the record the text of the letter (Exhibit 266) which reads: 

     “Dear Sir,

At the time of the DC10 crash I was employed in Antarctica by D.S.I.R. as a survival instructor/mountaineer assistant.  I was one of the three mountaineers who made the initial inspection of the site for survivors.  I was also one of the three mountaineers who accompanied Messrs David Graham (Investigator) Ian Gemmell & Ian Wood (Air NZ) during their initial inspection of the aircraft.  During the first six days after the accident I was at the crash site at all times when the site was occupied.

     In regard to evidence reported in the Christchurch Press today, 5
     Dec 1980, I can state unequivocally that: 

     (1) Captain Gemmell did not spend any time inspecting the aircraft
     without other people being present.

(2) Captain Collins flight bag was found by me the day after the crash, this being three days before any Air N.Z. personnel or crash investigators reached the site.  My recollection is that it was empty when I first inspected it.  It certainly contained no diaries or briefing material.

     (3) Captain Gemmell did not remove any items from the persons of
     deceased lying in the area....”

Counsel proceeded to read from the letter which goes on to refer to instructions concerning the crevassed area of the ice-slope.