There were made apologies by New Zealand’s national carrier to the families whose relatives died in the nation’s worst air disaster that happened 30 years ago. On November 28, 1979, the DC10 airliner crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica, as a result 257 people died.

A memorial to 257 dead people was unveiled by Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand chief executive, on Friday. He tendered apology to those who did not receive the compassion and support from Air New Zealand. It is considered to be the worst peacetime disaster for New Zealand. Fyfe hope that the apology would atone all failures and gaps made by the company.

New Zealand perused the investigation according to which the disaster happened because of the pilot’s error but later it turned out that the airliner’s navigational computers were incorrectly programmed. As a result airline executives were accused of covering up evidence and deceiving investigators.

Fyfe noted that victim families did not get enough support after the disaster, the families received compensations but there were complaints of relatives as they did not have enough communication and emotional support.

According to Wellington’s Dominion-Post newspaper, Jackie Nankervis was 15 when she lost her father and uncle because of the disaster. Her family got only flowers from the airline company immediately after the crash. Generally the police kept in touch with the victim families.

Nankervis said that the apology that was made by Rob Fyfe was the right step in the right direction.

It was decided to mark the actual anniversary by making the flight with five passengers, flight crew and cabin crew in Airbus A320 to New Zealand’s Antarctic outpost Scott Base, then to the crash site on the flank of Mount Erebus for a memorial ceremony.

Messages that were made by victim families would be placed in a capsule at the crash site.