I remember walking up the hill to school at the end of November 1979 and seeing the flags on the main building flying at half-mast. I was in year 12 or form six as it was then. From memory, I was going in for an afternoon exam. I hadn't seen the news, so I wasn't aware that around 12:30 pm an Air New Zealand plane had crashed into the side of a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew.
In this article we remember the events that make November arguably our darkest month. From the attack on Parihaka, Armistice Day, the Aramoana shooting, Ballentynes’ Fire, Pike River explosion, and as already spoken of, the Mt Erebus crash.
The attack on Parihaka occurred on November 5th 1881 when 1600 British troops and volunteers invaded the pacifist Māori village of Parihaka in Taranaki. The residents, led by prophets Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi, practised nonviolent resistance against land confiscation. Despite their commitment to peace, the leaders were arrested, the community destroyed and the inhabitants dispersed.
Not a dark day in itself but on November 11th 1918, the Great War ended. Aotearoa New Zealand lost over 18,000 people between in the different theatres including Gallipoli, Palestine and the Western Front.
The Aramoana shooting occurred on November 13 1990, in the small seaside community of Aramoana, New Zealand. A lone gunman, armed with a high-powered rifle, went on a shooting rampage, ultimately taking the lives of 13 people. The tragedy led to significant changes in New Zealand's gun control laws and remains one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country's history.
On the 18th November 1947, the Ballantynes’ department store in Christchurch caught fire. Forty-one people lost their lives in the tragedy, and the blaze devastated the iconic building. The fire had a profound impact on New Zealand's approach to fire safety regulations and building codes, leading to significant improvements in fire prevention and emergency response measures.
Numerous mining tragedies have rocked Aotearoa New Zealand, the most recent being the Pike River Mine disaster. On the afternoon of November 19 2010, an explosion ripped through the Pike River mine, trapping 29 miners underground. The incident was later attributed to a methane explosion followed by a second blast fueled by coal dust.
The Mount Erebus crash took place on November 28 1979, when an Air New Zealand Flight 901 DC-10 aircraft crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica during a sightseeing flight. All 257 people on board were killed in the tragedy. The investigation revealed that a combination of pilot error, inadequate communication, and flawed navigation equipment contributed to the disaster.
