The owners of a deadly volcanic island and the tour booking agents who took visitors there have been ordered to pay almost NZ$13 million (€7.3 million), NZ$2.6 million (€1.5 million) in penalties and NZ$10.2 million (€5.7 million) in compensation, after 22 tourists were killed in 2019.
Holiday heaven became hell
The island was once a frequently visited site. Known as White Island or Whakaari, it sits in the Bay of Plenty, approximately 48km off the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Its area of 325 hectares is in fact just the tip of a huge submarine volcano – New Zealand’s most active. It has been emitting volcanic gas almost continuously since its “discovery” by James Cook in 1769.
Visitors would pay to arrive by boat or helicopter and have the experience of climbing an active volcano. But on 9 December 2019, an eruption occurred that engulfed tourists in superheated steam and scorching debris. 47 tourists and tour guides were there at the time. 22 were killed, some instantly, and some after suffering appalling burns.
One survivor, who suffered burns to 38% of her body, described the horror as the eruption caused “sand and rocks everywhere that were being thrown” at her. Others described suffocation in what prosecutors said were temperatures of at least 100 degrees Celsius.
In the aftermath of the White Island volcano eruption in New Zealand on December 9, 2019, a court has ordered tour operators and island managers to pay survivors over NZ$10 million in damages and fines totaling around NZ$2.6 million.
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) March 3, 2024
The court found them negligent for not… pic.twitter.com/xWTraweAKl
Inadequate risk assessment
In a three-month trial last year, a case was heard against the island’s owners, a group of brothers who style themselves as Whakaari Management Ltd (WML), plus a range of tour operators. Under the microscope, the risk assessments and mitigations the operators had put in place, warnings about dangers and other corporate responsibilities.
Of the 13 defendants, six admitted guilt, and six had their cases dismissed. Operators were condemned under the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to consult volcanological experts and not understanding the chances of eruption. WML, meanwhile, was handed the largest fine and found to have failed in a duty to ensure adequate risk assessment had taken place.
Emotional harm, handsome profits
Judge Evangelos Thomas called for the ability to be able to impose “greater awards” in cases that entail “emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this case.” He also noted that no amount of money could “measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure,” adding that “Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm.”
As well as receiving the heftiest penalty, special mention was made of WML and its family of Buttle brothers, who claimed to have no assets or funds held in banks. The brothers “appeared to have profited handsomely” the judge said.
The brothers cannot be forced as individuals to pay their NZ$636,000 fine (€357,000) or their share of NZ$4.8 million (€2.7 million in reparations to victims and loved ones. But they had an “inescapable moral” imperative to do so, Thomas warned, adding “the world is watching”.