New Zealand tour operators told to pay $7.8 million in fines and reparations over volcanic eruption

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Tour booking agents and managers of a New Zealand island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people in 2019 were ordered Friday to pay nearly $13 million (US$7.8 million) in fines and reparations.

The holding company of the island’s owners, a boat tour operator and three companies that operated helicopter tours had been found guilty of safety breaches at a three-month trial last year.

White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Māori name Whakaari, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption. There were 47 tourists and tour guides on the island when superheated steam erupted on Dec. 9, 2019, killing some people instantly and leaving survivors with agonizing burns.

“There is no way to measure the emotional harm survivors and affected families have endured and will continue to endure,” Judge Evangelos Thomas said during the sentencing in a Wellington court. “Reparation in a case like this can be no more than token recognition of that harm.”

“No review of prevailing reparation levels conducted by any other court contemplates emotional harm of the scale and nature that is present in this case. Greater awards are appropriate.”

Previously, a three-month, judge-only trial against 13 groups had seen six plead guilty and six other having charges against them dismissed. The charges were brought by regulators and carried fines as a maximum penalty.

The final remaining defendant in the trial was Whakaari Management Ltd. which was found guilty on one charge in October last year.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Thomas was particularly scathing towards the shareholders of WML, the holding company for the island’s owners: Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, who he said had