Owners of Volcano That Killed 22 Balk at Owning the Tragedy

The owner of New Zealand's White Island argues it wasn't responsible for mitigating health and safety risks for visitors, including the 22 who died when the island's volcano erupted in 2019, per the AP. Brothers Andrew, James, and Peter Buttle own the island, also known as Whakaari, through Whakaari Management Limited, which was convicted of violations of the Health and Safety at Work Act last October. The company was ordered to pay millions of dollars but filed an appeal in March. On Tuesday, WML's lawyer told the Auckland High Court that the trial judge was wrong to have concluded that the brothers were managers of a workplace under the law and therefore responsible for mitigating health and safety risks.

"Just like any landowner, [WML] had the ability to and did grant the right of access to the land through licenses," attorney Rachael Reed said. "It did not run the tours. It did not direct or supervise the tours." As a result, it was the responsibility of tour operators to ensure the safety of visitors, Reed said. Twenty-two of 47 tourists and tour guides who were on the island at the time of the December 2019 eruption died, some instantly. Another 25 were injured, many seriously, per Radio New Zealand. Visitors later said they hadn't been informed of any dangers in visiting what's New Zealand's most active volcano.

Judge Evangelos Thomas found WML had failed to undertake a risk assessment following a 2016 eruption. He said the company—which he noted "appeared to have profited handsomely" from tours, per the AP—should've sought expert advice, put controls in place, or stopped all tours. He ordered WML to pay a $636,000 fine, plus $2.97 million to the victims and their families, at a sentencing hearing in February. "We wait to see what the Buttles will do," he added. "The world is watching." Justice Simon Moore is overseeing the appeal. He told the court "that any error found by the trial judge must rise to the level of a miscarriage of justice for the appeal to be successful," the AP reports. (Some tour operators pleaded guilty to workplace safety violations.)