{"id":166248,"date":"2024-11-01T16:27:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T16:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/new-zealand-volcano-island-owners-convicted-over-eruption-that-killed-22-people-await-miscarriage-of-justice-ruling\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T16:27:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T16:27:20","slug":"new-zealand-volcano-island-owners-convicted-over-eruption-that-killed-22-people-await-miscarriage-of-justice-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/new-zealand-volcano-island-owners-convicted-over-eruption-that-killed-22-people-await-miscarriage-of-justice-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand volcano island owners convicted over eruption that killed 22 people await miscarriage of justice ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand convicted over an eruption that killed 22 people are awaiting a ruling on whether they suffered a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

A judge is considering an appeal from Whakaari Management, which is run by three brothers who own the active volcano Whakaari, also known as White Island.<\/p>\n

The company was convicted of failing to keep visitors safe<\/a><\/strong> following an eruption that killed 22 tourists and local guides in 2019.<\/p>\n

In March, it was ordered to pay millions of dollars in fines and reparations to the victims of the eruption, who were mostly US and Australian cruise ship passengers on a walking tour.<\/p>\n

Whakaari Management’s case, laid out in a three-day appeal at the High Court in Auckland which ended on Thursday, was that responsibility for the safety of visitors lay with the tour operators, and not itself.<\/p>\n

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October 2023: NZ firm guilty over volcano disaster<\/span>
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Prosecutors said the firm should have done risk assessments to decide if tourists should have even been allowed there at all.<\/p>\n

But lawyers for the company told the court this week that it had acted as a landlord, not a manager of operations and, as it had nothing to do with the tours, the operators were responsible for on-site safety.<\/p>\n

There were 47 tourists and tour guides on the island in December 2019 when superheated steam blew, killing some instantly and leaving others with agonising burns.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
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Blur star’s ex-wife travelled to Dignitas alone<\/a>
J Lo responds to Trump rally comments about Puerto Rico<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Maori name Whakaari, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption and was reached by boat or helicopter from the North Island’s Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

In emotional evidence, survivors said they had not been told the active volcano was dangerous when they paid to visit it.<\/p>\n

They also said they weren’t given protective equipment, and many were wearing clothing that made their horrific burns even worse.<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Judge Evangelos Thomas said Whakaari Management had failed to undertake a risk assessment despite knowing of an eruption three years earlier.<\/p>\n

He said the company should have sought expert advice about the dangers and either stopped the tours entirely or put controls in place.<\/p>\n

Charges were brought against 13 organisations and people, with some pleading guilty, including three companies that operated helicopter tours.<\/p>\n

Justice Simon Moore told the court he will decide on the appeal by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand convicted over an eruption that killed 22 people are awaiting a ruling on whether they suffered a miscarriage of justice. A judge is considering an appeal from Whakaari Management, which is run by three brothers who own the active volcano Whakaari, also known as White Island. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/10\/768x432\/skynews-new-zealand-volcano_6342289.jpg?20231031061446","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15982,8110,4036,136,9589,1177,10577,6603,124,1872,597,9246],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166250,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166248\/revisions\/166250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}