Prior to the eruption, White Island, the point of an underwater volcano also known by its Indigenous Māori name Whakaari, was a well-liked tourist attraction. On December 9, 2019, superheated steam exploded on the island, killing several people quickly and leaving survivors with excruciating burns
Tour operators and managers of an island in New Zealand where a volcanic eruption claimed 22 lives in 2019 were mandated to pay penalties and restitution of around $13 million (US$7.8 million) on Friday.
Following a three-month trial last year, the holding company of the island’s owners, three firms that provided helicopter excursions, and a boat tour operator were all found guilty of safety violations.
Prior to the eruption, White Island, the point of an underwater volcano also known by its Indigenous Māori name Whakaari, was a well-liked tourist attraction. On December 9, 2019, superheated steam exploded on the island, killing several people quickly and leaving survivors with excruciating burns. There were 47 visitors and tour operators on the island.
“There is no way to measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure,” Judge Evangelos Thomas said during the sentencing in an Auckland court. “Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm.”
“No review of prevailing reparation levels conducted by any other court contemplates emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this case. Greater awards are appropriate.”
Previously, a three-month, judge-only trial against 13 organisations resulted in six guilty pleas and the dismissal of six additional accusations. The charges were brought by regulators, with penalties as the maximum penalty.
Whakaari Management Ltd., the final remaining defendant in the trial, was found guilty on one charge in October last year.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Thomas was particularly critical of the shareholders of WML, the holding company for the island’s owners: Andrew, James, and Peter Buttle, whom he claimed had “appeared to have profited handsomely” from tours to the island despite the company claiming no assets or a bank account to hold funds.
While conceding he could not make orders against the individual owners, he said the ruling did not relieve WML from its $636,000 fine or its share of the reparations for the victims and their families of $2.97 million.
“This case, like many others, sadly reveals how simply corporate structures can be used to thwart meaningful responses to safety breaches,” Judge Thomas said. “There may be no commercial basis for doing so, but many would argue there is an inescapable moral one.”
“We wait to see what the Buttles will do. The world is watching.”
The specific reparation sums awarded to victims and the families of those who died was suppressed for publication by the court.
The last remaining defendant, New Zealand scientific agency GNS Science, the government agency that monitors volcanic activity, was fined $33,000 for failing to have processes to share risk assessments with its contracted helicopter pilots. No GNS staff were on the island at the time of the eruption and the agency was not ordered to make any reparations.