Tourists received no health and safety warnings before they landed on New Zealand’s most active volcano ahead of a 2019 eruption that killed 22 people, a prosecutor stated as prosecutors opened their case in New Zealand this week on health and safety charges against six tourism industry operators that took them, and others, there – most from a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Many people question why tourists were allowed to visit the island after experts monitoring seismic activity raised the volcano’s alert level two weeks before the eruption.

The island’s owners, brothers Andrew, James, and Peter Buttle; their company Whakaari Management Ltd.; and tour operators ID Tours NZ Ltd. and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd. went on trial Tuesday in Auckland District Court for allegedly failing to adequately protect tourists and staff.

Prosecutor Kristy McDonald said in opening the prosecution case that the eruption at the popular tourist destination was not predictable but was foreseeable. The 20 tourists and two tour guides who died were given no warning of the risks, she said.

“They were not given the opportunity to make any informed decision about whether they wanted to take the risk of walking into the crater of an active and unpredictable volcano that had erupted as recently as 2016,” McDonald said.

“The business of tourism on Whakaari was a risky business. It involved tours to an active volcano, taking people to the heart of the crater in circumstances where no one could predict when an eruption might occur, and if an eruption did occur, those on Whakaari were likely to die or suffer very serious injury. And tragically, that risk was realized,” she said.

There were 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name, Whakaari, when superheated gases erupted on Dec. 9. Most of the 25 people who survived were severely burned.

Of those killed, 14 were Australians, five were Americans, two were New Zealanders and one was German.

McDonald said the company that owned the volcano – Whakaari Management Ltd. (WML) – failed to understand the risk, failed to consult with tour operators on the hazards, failed to ensure appropriate personal protective equipment was provided to tourists and staff, and failed to provide an adequate means of evacuation.

The company left tour operators to monitor the changing risk. An eruption on April 27, 2016, occurred at night without warning when no one was on the island. That should have prompted the owner to review the risk assessment, McDonald said.

The volcano had gone through 42 “eruptive periods” since colonial records began in 1826, McDonald said.

After the 2016 eruption, New Zealand geology agency GNS Science said its staff were banned from visiting the crater floor until further notice because of the “heightened state of volcanic unrest,” McDonald said.

Despite knowing this, several operators continued taking tourists to the crater from the day after the eruption, she said.

WHL, which made a profit of 1 million New Zealand dollars ($826,000) a year from tourists, could have paid GNS for a formal risk assessment but did not, she said.
McDonald said warning tourists of the dangers “would obviously not be good for business. However, profit should never come before safety,” she said.

She blamed the Buttle brothers for the WML’s failure to assess the volcano danger.
ID Tours NZ and Tauranga Services also failed to ensure 38 passengers, who had travelled from Australia aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas and were on the volcano when it erupted, had been properly warned of the risk, she said.

Those 38 people “did not receive any health and safety information about volcanic activity or volcanic risk prior to the tour,” McDonald said.

If WML was going to allow tourists to visit the volcano, the company should have ensured visitors were equipped with adequate personal protective equipment and that emergency evacuation options were provided, McDonald said.

McDonald said the only way off the island other than aircraft was a 90-year-old jetty that was too small for tourist boats to dock at. Survivors had to climb down a ladder to inflatable boats.

David Neutze, the lawyer for ID Tours, said Royal Caribbean had probably breached safety standards but the New Zealand regulator WorkSafe had no jurisdiction over the Florida-based company. ID Tours’ role was as a ground handler taking passengers from the cruise ship and as a booking agent for volcano tours.

“ID, we say, did not have a reasonably practical ability to cancel tours, to control the provision of health and safety information to passengers, to verify its accuracy or its adequacy or appropriateness of any health or safety information provided,” Neutze said. “Those functions were part of the work activity of others, principally Royal Caribbean, which sold the tours, and White Island Tours, which provided the tours.”

White Island Tours pleaded guilty in June to safety breaches relating to the eruption. All but one of the 22 dead were involved with that tour operator.

An American honeymoon couple, Matt Urey and his wife, Lauren Barham, from Richmond, Virginia, were among the first witnesses to testify. The American couple were among tourists who had been travelling from Australia aboard the Ovation of the Seas.

Urey said a guide had assured her that an early warning system on the island would alert them 10 minutes before any eruption. She said she was told wearing a hard hat on the volcano was compulsory but wearing a respirator was optional.

She was feeling safe by the time she got to the volcano crater and was enjoying herself until a tourist pointed to the rising plume of the eruption. “I remember my heart just sink and so many people were taking pictures. I just freaked out,” she said.

Matt Urey described seeing a “huge plume coming up” and a “large black cloud.” He heard a guide say: “Not today. Run.”

Lauren Urey said she and her husband ran for their lives, then hid behind rocks and held each other’s hands, adding, “I was positive we were going to die.”

The badly burned couple managed to make their way from the island. Both spent weeks in hospitals.

Lauren Urey said she was given no warning of the dangers of an eruption or advice to wear protective clothing.

Matt Urey said he was not told until they had almost reached the island that there was a “stage two” volcanic alert level which meant that parts of the island were off limits. “They didn’t really explain what that meant,” he said.

Under New Zealand’s six-tier Volcanic Alert Level system, Level 2 denotes moderate to heightened volcanic unrest. Hazards include a potential eruption. Level 3 is a minor volcanic eruption with eruption hazards near the vent.
Matt Urey said he never would have risked the tour if he had understood the alert level.

Three helicopter tour operators pleased guilty last week to safety breaches and avoided the judge-only trial, which is scheduled to last 16 weeks.

Each of the organizations faces a maximum fine of NZ$1.5 million ($1.2 million). Each individual charged faces a maximum fine of NZ$300,000 ($247,000).