Grahame Mitford Ashton

Grahame Mitford Ashton was due to celebrate his 65th birthday the day after the plane crash, and this trip was a celebration of that birthday. He was originally going to fly with his wife, Catherine, but she changed her mind a few weeks before the flight and he went with his close friend and pilot Roy Thomas, who he had flown with during World War II in the Pacific. Roy’s body was one of the few never recovered from Mt Erebus. Grahame was retired and survived by his wife Catherine and only child Warick. Grahame and Catherine had retired to Auckland, where he was from, but had lived most of his adult life in Wellington, where he was the general manager of an import/export company. He was an active sailor and played bowls regularly. Also a very keen gardener and a general DIY handyman. Grahame and Catherine had only received news a week before the flight that they were to become grandparents for the first time and it was with great sadness that he wasn’t able to be around for the birth of his first grandson, Craig, born the following April, or for his second grandson, Gareth, born the following year. His loss was keenly felt by his family and all who knew him. Source: Venna Ashton (daughter-in-law and widow of Warick Ashton) via https://insights.nzherald.co.nz/apps/2019/erebus/

On the morning of 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight TE901 left Mangere airport, Auckland, for an 11-hour return sightseeing flight to Antarctica. At 12.49 p.m. (NZST), the aircraft crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew on board. It was the worst civil disaster in New Zealand's history. Source: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/erebus-disaster