Melbourne survivor Stephanie Browitt describes White Island volcano tragedy
A Craigieburn woman who survived last year’s White Island volcano eruption has described the excruciating hour-long wait for help while trapped on the New Zealand island with burns to most of her body. Her dad and sister were killed in the tragedy.
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A Melbourne survivor of last year’s New Zealand volcano tragedy has described the agonising hour-long wait for help while trapped on White Island with burns to most of her body.
Stephanie Browitt, 23, from Craigieburn, her father Paul and sister Krystal, 21, were on a tour of the volcanic island when the tragedy struck on December 9 last year.
Krystal tragically died on the island while her father passed away in The Alfred hospital in January.
Stephanie suffered third-degree burns to about 70 per cent of her body and lost parts of her fingers in the disaster.
She said she was knocked over by the force of the blast and was tumbling and rolling for what felt like minutes.
“No one could move,” she told ABC’s Four Corners.
“I remember trying to stand up and it took so much energy just to stand up. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe how hard this is’. My legs just felt like jelly.
“Everyone was just on the ground. There was one person lying flat on their belly just spread out, who was screaming in pain, another person who was yelling for help.
“I remember thinking: ‘I don’t know why people are yelling, like, there’s just no one near, around us, we’re on an island in the middle of the ocean’.”
As Ms Browitt and others waited for help surrounded by ash, she said she heard her dad call out her name.
“Every 15 to 20 minutes, I’d hear my name again. My dad was yelling out my name and I realised he was checking up on me to make sure I was awake,” she said.
“I remember thinking, ‘I need to slow down my breathing or I’m not going to make it’.”
After waiting nearly an hour, a helicopter from a private tour company arrived on the island and Ms Browitt was put into the front seat and taken back to the mainland with four other victims on board.
“There was a point where I wanted to fall asleep. I was just rocking back and forth, and nearly just falling over, crouching over and the pilot was like: ‘Stay awake. You’re going to be OK. Just stay awake’,” she said.
She was one of 12 people rescued by a group of local helicopter tour pilots who risked their own lives to save them.
“I’m upset at the whole situation, but I’m very angry that it took so long for the rescue to come,” Ms Browitt said.
“Now I realise rescue actually wasn’t coming. It was just three pilots who chose to risk their own lives to help us and if they hadn’t come, we’d all be gone.
“Sometimes I wonder if my sister might have had a chance if we were found sooner.”
Ms Browitt claimed it was only once they got to the island that their guides told them the volcano alert level was at two, the highest level it can be before an actual eruption occurs.
“I was a little concerned … but at the same time you sort of have trust that we wouldn’t be on here, they wouldn’t be running tours if they thought it was dangerous,” she said.
“We didn’t sign any waivers, get any receipts, nothing.”
Stephanie, Krystal and Paul were part of a group of 38 people from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship on a day trip to White Island, while her mother Marie had stayed on the ship docked in the Bay of Plenty.
Twenty-one people died while visiting the island on December, 19 of who were passengers on board the cruise liner.
Family members and victims of the eruption will pursue legal action against Royal Caribbean cruise line, the operator of Ovation of the Seas, alleged negligence, breach of contract, and breach of Australian consumer law.
Ms Browitt is now receiving treatment at a rehab centre in Melbourne and is hoping to be home before her 24th birthday next month.