Tour operators ordered to pay $12 million in fines and reparations over White Island tragedy

The judge in the long-running prosecution over the Whakaari White Island disaster of 2019 has ordered that the guilty parties pay $10.21 million in reparations to families of victims and survivors.

In the Auckland Court yesterday, Judge Evangelos Thomas also sentenced the five guilty parties, with the largest penalty of $978,000 handed to Whakaari Management Limited, the company held by the owners of the volcano.

Whakaari Management Limited (WML) was also ordered to pay $4.57 million of the total reparation figure while White Island Tours, the company operating walking tours on the volcano that day, was fined $483,900 for breaches of New Zealand's workplace health and safety legislation and ordered to contribute $4.68 million to reparation payments.

22 people died and many others were injured when the volcano erupted while 47 people were touring the island in December 2019.

WML and White Island Tours were among the parties found guilty of negligence and safety breaches at the end of last year. Three other tour companies, Volcanic Air Safaris, Aerius Limited and Kahu NZ Limited, were also ordered to pay damages.

Separately, GNS Science - a New Zealand government-owned research body that monitors the country’s volcanos - was ordered to pay a fine of $54,000 for inadequately communicating with contractors about the risks on White Island.

In making his judgement on Friday, Judge Thomas told the Court that no-one escaped White Island that day without injury, commenting “22 people lost their lives, the remaining people on the island were all injured, most seriously. For those remaining, the suffering has been immense.”

Judge Thomas has overseen this matter since late 2020 when charges were laid and on Friday said the Court acknowledges the ongoing pain felt by survivors and the grief felt by the families of victims.

He added “the treatment was often painful, arduous, disheartening, for many it remains ongoing

"Many people grapple with disfigurement of one kind or another. It's just simply the physical injury that has caused such harm … the emotional consequences deepen the suffering. We acknowledge that harm."

The prosecution and the subsequent 11-week trial was the largest action of its kind ever brought by New Zealand's workplace health and safety regulator Worksafe NZ.

Judge Thomas went on to say that the compensation was "no more than a token recognition" of the victims' suffering.

Payments will be divided among the victims, with larger amounts for the families of the 22 people who were killed.

WML’s owners - brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle - previously faced individual criminal prosecutions over the deaths, but the charges were dropped last year.

Earlier in the week, the Court heard that WML had no money or assets to offer by way of compensation as it was only a corporate trustee for the Buttles' Whakaari Management Trust.

According to Radio New Zealand, it also did not have liability insurance at the time of the disaster - meaning the damages would have to be paid out of pocket.

Judge Thomas said on Friday that there was "nothing to stop the Buttles, as WML's shareholders, from advancing the necessary funds to cover that obligation.

"There may be no commercial basis for doing so, but many would argue there is an inescapable moral one," he said, noting that the brothers "appear to have profited handsomely from tours to Whakaari.

"We wait to see what the Buttles will do. The world is watching."

Judge Thomas acknowledged that the other companies that had been found liable may also struggle to find the required funds.

Tourism activities on White Island have not resumed since the eruption.

Some of the tourists who bought their tour ticket to Whakaari through Royal Caribbean Cruises have already reached settlements after suing the Florida-based company in the USA.

Images: A woman photographs White Island just moments after it erupted on Monday 9th December 2019 (top, credit: Twitter/Michael Schade) and White Island from the air (below, credit: GeoNet).