Even a promotional brochure for the scenic route had boasted of the scenery using photographs clearly taken from a way 
below the safe altitude.

The Royal Commission did not only find that the airline was to blame due to the mistakes in the flight path, but it also alleged 
that Air New Zealand had essentially tried to cover up its own responsibility: a conspiracy to blame the pilots leaving Air New 
Zealand morally in the clear - and also in terms of compensation payouts to the victims' relatives.

Famously, the head of the inquiry, judge Peter Mahon, described the airline's defence as "an orchestrated litany of lies" - a 
phrase which would stick in the national consciousness.