This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer
You'll note this track takes it very close to the 48 nm WLM radar plot and also the
Upper Williams River plot (Red Placemarks). I'm not too worried about the differences
in the 'timestamps' in relation to these radar plots when you remember the variable
accuracies and lags in the radar system and the possible lack of synchronization
of the clocks back in those days. It's anybodies guess how accurate these were, but
I would think that even the radar plots were more of an educated guess. The same
also applies to the 330 degrees from WLM direction. According to this track and timing
from the first radar ident, the 330 is about 3 degrees out and with the equipment
they had in those days, I would say it would be difficult to determine that sort
of accuracy... remember - at 09:28:41 in the transcript, Sector One said to Flight
Information Service, "Awh, not very accurate these things... he's probably about
36".... not really something you would say if you believed they were accurate!
The difference between the actual 330 from WLM to the calculated position is about
2 1/2 nm, but considering that MDX was traveling with a strong tailwind at this point
at anything up to 209 knots ground speed (3.48 nm/min) it will only take about 42
seconds to cover that distance, so one is not talking as huge a margin of error as
it may at first seem. However, in my final trajectory, you will see that I have made
allowance for this possible error.
