How New Zealand’s White Island volcano eruption unfolded
When the White Island volcano erupted, it took innocent lives, created remarkable stories of survival and left loved ones and authorities asking why people were allowed in a death trap.
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They are the sliding doors moments – seemingly innocuous decisions that are the difference between life and death or unimaginably horrific suffering.
For the holiday-makers who had left Sydney on Royal Caribbean’s luxury liner The Ovation of The Seas, the choices of activities as they docked in Tauranga on New Zealand’s North Island were no different to any others offered on their 12-day cruise.
Maria Browitt was travelling with her family, her youngest daughter Krystal had just turned 21 and they were celebrating with eldest daughter Stephanie and husband Paul.
When they opted to take the tour to the White Island volcano, Mrs Browitt chose to stay behind.
It was a decision that would lead to some even tougher choices over the coming days.
Nine friends from Coffs Harbour were having the holiday of their lives.
Three of them – Jason Griffiths, Karla Mathews and Richard Elzer – opted to take the half-day trip to the active volcano.
It was billed as a high-end trip and looked like a great experience.
Sydney Water employee Anthony Langford was celebrating his 51st birthday on the cruise with wife Kristine and children Jesse, 19, and Winona, 17.
They, like 47 others, would take the 80-minute boat ride from Whakatane out to the active volcano in the Bay of Plenty.
What they did not know was that official geological hazard information agency GeoNet (GNS) had issued multiple warnings of “volcanic unrest” at White Island as far back as late October.
“Moderate volcanic unrest continues at Whakaari/White Island, with substantial gas, steam and mud bursts observed at the vent located at the back of the crater lake,” it reported last Tuesday.
Twenty-four-year-old Ovation of the Seas passenger Venessa Lugo, from Newcastle, said information about the White Island day tour was provided before the cruise, in printed sheets on board, and through a Royal Caribbean app that cruisers were encouraged to download.
“In those sheets we weren’t advised of any warnings of anything going off,” she said.
“It did ask about pre-existing medical conditions, and it was classified as strenuous activity because you would be in a gas mask, but it definitely didn’t specify the possibility of (the volcano) going off.”
Screenshots from the section of the Royal Carribean app spruiking the tour reveals passengers were urged to consider their physical fitness before choosing the expedition, and were told it was not appropriate for people with limited mobility.
Asked whether passengers were informed that White Island’s hazard level had been raised from level one to level two, Ms Lugo said no.
“None of that information was sent through to us,” she said.
In the White Island Tour office the tourists were asked to sign a waiver “so that you can’t sue us” earlier tourists were told.
The Maori name for White Island is Te Puia o Whakaari – dramatic volcano.
It had lived up to its name three years previously when late on April 27, 2016 it erupted. No one was on the island at the time but the blast carved a new crater, caused landslides and coated the base with green ash.
A study published earlier this year, used the eruption to warn of the dangers to tourists.
GNS Science volcanologist Brad Scott said operators were aware of the risk because it obliterated their walking tracks.
“The operators were 110 per cent aware of the impacts, because when they went out on their next trip, their walking track was no longer available,” he said.
“They had to change the route and walk a new track because the previous one was buried, so they were 110 per cent aware of the impact of eruptions, and would have seen the smashed solar panels and sheared survey pegs.”
The scientists had been warning that the increased volcanic activity in recent weeks was very similar to that three years ago.
On November 18, the official earthquake information body GeoNet upgraded White Island’s alert level from a level 1 to a level 2, meaning “moderate to heightened volcanic unrest” with the “potential for eruption hazards”.
But $229 a ticket in peak season is hard to turn away.
White Island Tours banks $4 million a year from the average 18,000 tourists who go out for the thrill of visiting a live volcano.
Chairman Paul Quinn said the decision to go on Monday was based on advice from GNS and the weather.
“GNS do the monitoring, and they advise us if there are any changes, and we operate around their guidelines in terms of what levels are stipulated.
“Level 3 and above we liaise more directly with GNS but that level 2 is still within our operational guidelines,” he said.
Not only was the safety of the tourists left to the commercial operator – no official government agency had jurisdiction over the privately-owned island that had been in the hands of the Buttle family since 1936.
Peter Buttle, one of three brothers who make up the Whakaari Trust, said “the island has become a major international tourist attraction in the Bay of Plenty”.
“The trust appointed the official operator and received a royalty for every tourist who visits.” His 91-year-old mother Beverly confirmed she is paid a retainer for allowing tourists to visit the island that she fondly remembers camping on overnight years ago.
But on Monday the volcano was rumbling. A video taken by a tour guide just before those from The Ovation of the Seas arrived showed water on the island was “bubbling” and “turning green”.
“I’m a little bit worried about why it’s going green,” the guide tells his group on the video. And he warns them “if you do get engulfed by the steam, basically turn your back to it and … just crouch down.”
On Monday, the tour groups from The Ovation of the Seas were handed plastic yellow hard hats and face masks as they started their trek across the eerie moonscape of the crater floor. There were 47 people on the island – predominantly Australians but also people from the United States, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia.
The two groups were caught on GNS monitoring cameras walking on the crater floor at 2.10 on Monday afternoon.
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A minute later the cameras went black as the volcano erupted into violent life with a blast of steam, ash and molten mud that blew across the crater with enough force to knock a Volcano Air helicopter off its landing pad, smash its rotors and cake it with ash.
Pilot Brian De Pauw and his four German passengers were walking elsewhere on the island and missed the initial eruption.
The quick-thinking pilot led his passengers down to the water’s edge and told them to get in the sea with him.
Two followed his instructions and escaped injury while two others stayed on land and were badly burnt.
The other groups were not so lucky.
The first group, in the heart of the crater, barely stood a chance as the blast scorched the air and filled it with deadly fumes.
For Mr Langford his 51st birthday was his last – only his son Jesse survived and is in hospital with horrific burns.
Mr De Pauw’s commercial pilot colleagues heard about the explosion and made an instant and heroic decision to fly in and try and get the tourists out.
A toxic cloud towered 12,000 metres above the volcano as they flew in.
Pilot John Funnell said he was flying in the area at the time and helped co-ordinate the impromptu rescue from the sky.
The pilots decided to get in and out as quickly as possible.
“It was a matter of, because of the risk involved, getting them off the island as quick as we can and into a place of safety and of course that meant that those two or three pilots who went in there – into an active volcano – and loaded those people on board and flew them out are the guys that saved the day for the ones that did survive,” he said.
“They were landing right in the crater itself and the two pilots at the real start of it had to get out of their machines and walk around and search for survivors and then load them into their helicopters – some of these people were critically injured.”
Mr Barrow, director and chief pilot at Volcanic Air Safaris, said he and pilot Graeme “Hoppy” Hopcroft helped lift five survivors into Mr Law’s chopper and five more into another aircraft.
“At that location there was only one remaining survivor,” he said.
“We got that person on board the aircraft and that was the last survivor from the eruption. I then departed the volcano with Hoppy and these two survivors.
“They were in a bad way and one passed away on the flight back. In fact all aircraft had one pass away to the best of my knowledge.”
As they flew out three Westpac Rescue Helicopters with paramedics on board flew in.
“It will be etched in my memory forever,” Westpac Rescue helicopter’s Dr Tony Smith said. “There was a thick layer of yellow sulphur ash over everything.”
“Our job was to see if there were any patients remaining on the island who were still alive, unfortunately that turned out not to be the case,” he said.
The danger, fumes and heat of the blast meant they had to leave eight people where they had fallen: Mother and daughter Julie, 47, and Jessica Richards, 20, from Brisbane, Zoe Hosking, 15, from Adelaide together with Mrs Browitt’s daughter Krystal, and two of the group of friends from Coffs Harbour, Richard Elzer and Karla Mathews.
Their two New Zealand tour guides Tipene Maangi and Hayden Marshall-Inman were also left on the hostile atoll.
Mr Inman’s body was lifted from the water and placed on a rock before rescuers left.
White Island Tours boat skipper Paul Kingi had just pulled his boat away from the island when the volcano blew.
He watched in horror as the second group of tourists, burnt and terrified threw themselves into the sea.
Without flinching, he turned his boat back towards the spewing island to pick them up.
His heroism was hailed in a post on the Pursuit Fishing Charters page by owner Rick Pollack.
After the eruption Mr Kingi was “the first back on, rescuing and assisting numerous injured back on to the waiting boats,” Mr Pollack wrote.
The explosion killed Mr Kingi’s co-worker and friend Hayden Marshal-Inman.
“He went back again and again, ignoring the toxic environment and personal risk until he was satisfied there were no more obvious survivors remaining.”
New Zealanders Lilliani Hopkins 22, and her father Geoff Hopkins, 50, were on board and helped pull people on to the boat.
“I’ve never seen burns like it. It was horrific. The people just kept coming and coming,” the university student said.
“We were all in our bras because we were trying to keep people warm … (The victims) were all in wet clothes and then they went into shock.
“People are cold but they’re burning. Underneath their clothes the people were scorched and blistered,” she said.
“We had to clean people. People’s tongues were burnt, we had to clear their airways and their eyes.”
The victims cried in agony and passed in and out of consciousness.
“In the last 10 minutes we ran out for fresh water and there was nothing I could do but be with them,” she said.
On the dock at Whakatane, volunteers from the local fire brigade were waiting to help transport the wounded.
“I have been a firefighter for over 40 years and I have never seen anything like that,” deputy fire chief Malcolm Rowson said.
“They were totally covered in blisters and scorched skin.”
Fellow firefighter Chris Hands was still shaken from the experience.
“They were covered in burns and blisters … it is not something you want to see ever again,” he said.
Like many of those involved in the rescue, Mr Hands said he would be seeking counselling after ferrying the wounded to the local hospital.
On a normal day at Whakatane Hospital, there would be two doctors and six nurses on duty. They do not get too many burns patients but when they do they activate a trauma team and bring others in.
But by 3pm on the day of the blast, the hospital became a war-zone triage.
“It was all hands on deck,” Whakatane Hospital co-ordinator and duty nurse manager David van Dijk said.
“The entire hospital was involved in responding to the tragic event that we were faced with. “As well as doctors and nurses we had occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, podiatrists, radiographers, Regional Māori Health, staff from Public Health, stores, kitchen, admin, orderlies, security, facilities, engineers, cleaners and volunteers – all came together to do what they could.”
Community GPs and allied health professionals also rallied at the hospital when word spread there had been a catastrophic disaster; at its height there were more than 100 people working on the injured, including hospital office workers holding IV bags, all largely in the corridors.
Dr Heike Hundemer, clinical leader of Whakatāne Hospital and consultant anaesthetist, said what she saw on Monday was “beyond comprehension”.
“I’ve worked in major centres in Germany as well as New Zealand, I’ve never seen this number of critically injured patients coming into an Emergency Department in a short space of time,” she said.
“Our staff are deeply impacted by what they saw. We are a tight team, in a small community some of those people who have lost their lives were known to our staff. It was important to me to give some comfort to every patient I treated that day.
“I told them they were in good hands with a professional team … those people we treated and comforted will forever stay in our minds.”
The agonised victims with horrendously blistered, raw or completely missing skin were wrapped in clear cling film to stave off infections and seal wounds.
They then had to race to a local shop to buy more as metres of the plastic wrap was needed.
One medico said: “The smell of sulphur and burnt flesh was horrific and just the pandemonium going on.
“Some were so badly burnt there was actually no skin on the body to attach life-reading sensors to.
“Every booth was busy, and every booth you looked into the patients had massive burns. They were covered in ash and screaming in pain.”
The hospital worker helped stabilise a patient that had extensive burns to the front of her body.
Staff struggled to monitor her vital signs as there was no skin to attach the sensors to.
“Fluid was dripping out of her, so we wrapped and wrapped her in Gladwrap,” the doctor said.
“I was trying to roll her but I was too scared to touch her because every time I did, skin would come off in my hands.”
Tearfully, the staffer spoke of the moment they found out his patient’s name.
“We managed to call her by her name and say, ‘it’s gonna be alright’.
“We did our best for her, we got her as comfy as we could and put a warming device on her before transporting her to another hospital.”
Some patients were carrying mobile phones which were ringing but medics couldn’t answer them, there was nothing they could say at the height of the crisis. Other patients were screaming for loved ones.
Afterwards there was so much ash in the airconditioning, the whole system had to be removed and cleaned.
The victims were flown to seven specialist burns units in hospitals right across New Zealand. There were 34 injured, 25 of whom were critical.
And there were six officially dead and eight missing, presumed still on the island.
The death toll increased to eight with the deaths of Sydney schoolboys Matthew Hollander, 13, and his 16-year-old brother Berend. Their parents, Martin and Barbara are still unaccounted for.
New Zealanders were shocked. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern flew into the tourist town of Whakatane and spoke for the nation when she thanked first responders.
“They have done an incredible job under devastating circumstances,” she said.
“What a calamity that exists here in Whakatane, and everyone from coastguards, firefighters, St John, the police, all (those) down on the ground making themselves available to assist.”
On The Ovation of The Seas, the ship fell silent as the captain Henrik Loy made an emotional announcement about the “tragedy” that had befallen their fellow passengers. Many had friends and family missing and unidentified.
Brisbane mother Maria Browitt was now the soul uninjured member of her family and faced with unimaginable choices as she battled the guilt of surviving through her simple choice of not taking the tour.
“Her daughters are her whole world, it is too tragic,” a friend said.
“She’s blaming herself. It’s hard, it’s extremely hard.”
With Krystal missing, Mrs Browitt stayed by the bedside of her youngest daughter Stephanie as she lay comatose in a New Zealand hospital bed, her young body covered with deep burns.
Meanwhile her husband Paul was among the first to be airlifted by Australian military planes back to Melbourne where he was transferred to the specialist burns unit at The Alfred Hospital.
The Australian Government opted to start flying back its citizens on Thursday to take pressure off the overwhelmed Kiwi burns specialists who had shipped in 1.2 million square centimetres of skin to cope with the desperate need.
The group of friends from Coffs Harbour were also coming to terms with the abrupt and awful end to what had been a “a wonderful holiday together”.
They found their friend Jason Griffiths in hospital with burns to 80 per cent of his body. “From that moment until the moment of his passing, Jason was surrounded by friends and family members,” the said in a statement.
Their friends Richard Elzer and Karla Mathews we’re still on the island.
“We are incredibly saddened to have lost three of our closest friends,” they said.
As the world watched, pressure mounted on the New Zealand authorities to retrieve the bodies.
Drone footage showed the location of six but two were missing, possibly buried under the ash. GNS scientists warned the chance of another eruption had increased to 50 or 60 per cent.
Finally, in the early hours of Friday morning just before dawn, a White Islands tour boat slipped away from Whakatane wharf to return to White Island for the first time since the tragedy.
On board were 31 people including police and local Maori elders but significantly Australian families who had arrived here to see the volcano that killed their loved ones.
They were accompanied by Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand Patricia Forsythe who sat with them at the bow of the vessel. There too, Paul Quinn the boss of tour group.
About 1km from the shoreline a traditional Maori blessing was given to beg the island to give up its dead and remain peaceful while the body retrieval was underway.
The body retrieval operation began proper about 7am when the specialist NZ Defence Force team of eight in heavy protective suits landed on the island which was deemed to be extremely volatile with magma suspect to be just below the crater surface.
It took about four hours to remove six of the bodies, a search for two others disappointingly failed.
For the three Australian families travelling back on the boat to Whakatane on Friday morning that meant there could still be no closure until it was definitively proven who the two still missing on the island are.
Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha said: “The operation hasn’t finished … the planning team are working through that process. Everything that is going to be done will be done. Nothing will be left to chance.”
But so much was left to chance before. American honeymooners Lauren and Matthew Urey suffered appalling burns in the explosion.
Lauren’s father, Rick Barham, said it was “absurd” they were even there.
Her mother Barbara said they would not have gone if they had understood the true risks.
Yet in New Zealand, with its history of awe-inspiring natural wonders and relaxed regulation, there is already talk about getting the White Island volcano gravy train back on track. Whakatane mayor Judy Turner is adamant tours to the volcano should restart, tourism is the lifeblood of the town.
Volcano experts worldwide have questioned sending tourists to an active volcano.
Monash University volcano expert, professor Ray Cas said: “White Island has been a disaster waiting to happen for many years.
“I have always felt that it was too dangerous.”
The victims and families of 47 people caught in Monday’s eruption, their lives lost or forever ruined, would undoubtedly agree.
Originally published as How New Zealand’s White Island volcano eruption unfolded