Owners of White Island volcano that erupted in 2019 killing 22 people appeal conviction

The Whakaari (White Island) volcano in New Zealand erupted in 2019, resulting in the deaths of 22 people, including 17 Australians. The owners of the volcanic island are currently appealing their criminal convictions for breaching safety laws, arguing that tour operators, not their company, were responsible for the safety of tourists. They maintain that they were merely landowners and should not bear direct safety responsibility for tourism activities.

Whakaari Management, owned by brothers Andrew, Peter, and James Buttle, was found guilty last October by New Zealand's workplace safety regulator for failing to protect the safety of visitors on the island. The company was ordered to pay millions of dollars in fines and reparations, with the victims being tourists from cruise ships and their local guides. The company's appeal focuses on the definition of responsibility.

The company filed its appeal in March of this year. On Tuesday, lawyer Rachel Reed told the Auckland High Court that the original judge erred in ruling that the volcano's owners were legally workplace managers or controllers and therefore should be responsible for mitigating the health and safety risks to anyone present. Reed emphasized that the company, like any other landowner, merely granted access to the land through licenses and did not directly organize or supervise tourism activities.

Reed stated to the court, "Like any landowner, it had the ability and did grant access to the land through licenses. That is what it did. It did not run the tourism activity. It did not direct or supervise the tourism activity." White Island, the tip of an underwater volcano, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption. At the time of the eruption, there were 47 tourists and guides on the island, mostly from Australia and the United States, and the high-temperature steam eruption caused some deaths on the spot, while others suffered severe burns.

The disaster has raised concerns about natural hazards surrounding New Zealand's adventure tourism industry and has prompted calls for stricter laws for tourism companies. Survivors of the eruption stated that they were not informed of the dangers of the active volcano before being guided to the crater. Following a three-month trial last year, the judge ruled that the company was negligent in health and safety in the period leading up to the eruption. Judge Evangelos Thomas stated in his ruling that Whakaari Management failed to conduct a risk assessment despite knowing about a volcanic eruption three years prior. Judge Thomas argued that the company should have sought expert advice on the dangers and either completely stopped tourism activities or taken control measures. He dismissed a second charge against the company.

New Zealand's workplace safety regulator brought charges against 13 organizations and individuals, including the owner company. Some pleaded guilty, including three companies operating helicopter tours, a company operating cruise tours, a scenic flight operator, and the New Zealand science agency GNS Science. Charges against others were dropped. In the three-day appeal, Judge Simon Moore is expected to hear further submissions from Whakaari Management's lawyers before hearing arguments from the regulator. Judge Moore told the court that any errors found by the original judge must amount to a miscarriage of justice for the appeal to succeed.