Tourists make desperate scramble to escape volcano when they realise it’s erupting
Footage has emerged of the terrifying moment tourists filming a volcano realised it was erupting and had to flee.
The infamous eruption on New Zealand’s Whakaari White Island, on December 9, 2019, killed 22 people – 20 tourists and two guides.
Now, a video filmed by a group standing close to the active volcano seconds before it erupted has been released.
It shows around 18 people looking in awe at the natural phemomenon producing a grey steam and ash cloud.
Many take their phones out to film the spectacle but one of the guides quickly realises the danger.
He shouts ‘come on guys, follow me, let’s go,’ before an American tourist can be heard urging the group to ‘move, move, move’.
Some are seen hiding behind a large crater as they try to escape the growing cloud.
The clip was presented as evidence in a trial against the island’s owner company Whakaari Management Ltd and tour operators ID Tours NZ Ltd and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd.
They are facing allegations of failing to adequately protect clients and staff.
Prosecutor Kristy McDonald told Auckland District Court the disaster may not have been predictable but was foreseeable, on Tuesday.
Ms McDonald argued the tourists and guides were not given any warning about the risks.
She said: ‘They were not given the opportunity to make any informed decision about whether they wanted to take the risk of walking into the crater of an active and unpredictable volcano that had erupted as recently as 2016.
‘The business of tourism on Whakaari was a risky business.
‘It involved tours to an active volcano, taking people to the heart of the crater in circumstances where no one could predict when an erupting might occur, and if an eruption did occur, those on Whakaari were likely to die or suffer very serious injury. And tragically, that risk was realised.’
She went on to say Whakaari Management Ltd, run by brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle, left tour operators to monitor the changing risk.
The court heard how an eruption which occurred on April 27, in 2016, without any warning should have prompted the owner to review the risk assessment.
Of those killed, 14 were Australians, five were Americans, two were New Zealanders and one was a German.
There were 47 people in total on the island and many of those who survived suffered severe burns.
Matt Urey and Lauren Barham of Richmond, Virginia, who were on their honeymoon at the time, are listed as the first witnesses to testify.
They were among 38 tourists who had travelled from Australia aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas and were on the volcano when it erupted.
Three helicopter tour operators pleaded guilty last week to safety breaches.
Each of the companies faces a maximum fine of 1.5 million New Zealand dollars. Each of the brothers charged faces a maximum fine of 300,000 New Zealand dollars.
The trial being heard by judge Evangelos Thomas without a jury is scheduled to run for 16 weeks.
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