Following his secondary schooling at Wanganui Technical College , ( now Wanganui City College ) , Rana Waitai was a Freezing Worker at Wanganui in 1961 , a Bushman in 1961 at Karioi and also a factory worker . He later became a trainee probation officer at Wellington and in 1965 joined the New Zealand Police . In 1979 Waitai was the Duty Inspector at Police National Headquarters when Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed on Erebus . He rang Chief Superintendent Brian Davies who was at home in the evening : " We seem to have a small problem ... . We have lost a DC-10 sir . " He retired from the Police at the rank of Superintendent after 31 years
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Rana Waitai