The Pike River Mine incident ranks as New Zealand 's worst mining disaster since 1914 , when 43 men died at Ralph 's Mine in Huntly . It also resulted in the country 's worst loss of life caused by a single disaster since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 , although it was surpassed three months later by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Air New Zealand Flight 901
Pike River Mine disaster