White Island boats’ safety falls short
Boats belonging to White Island Tours fell short of maritime standards in an audit before a deadly eruption that killed 21 people.
A regulator also slapped one of its vessels with a notice to improve health and safety in 2017 in response to a hazard that injured a passenger.
And in the years leading up to the Whakaari/White Island blast, passengers were forced to transfer to other company vessels due to engine issues on six separate occasions.
Stuff has obtained emails and documents via the Official Information Act detailing the company’s dealings with Maritime NZ before and after the eruption on December 9.
Maritime NZ – the nautical equivalent of Worksafe – regulates health and safety on ships.
Blair Simmons, a maritime officer for the regulator, audited White Island Tours on June 23, 2017, a month after Nga¯ti Awa bought the operation for $9 million from Peter and Jenny Tait.
Simmons found three ‘‘nonconformities’’, or areas where the Whakata¯ ne company broke maritime rules.
Parachute flares on the vessel Predator had expired, while lifting and cargo equipment on Predator and Phoenix lacked test certificates, Simmons found.
He also discovered shortfalls in health and safety record-keeping, though he termed all of the failings as ‘‘minor’’.
Among his further observations were that records showed good reporting internally of several accidents and incidents.
However, the company should have notified Maritime NZ of several of the accidents and incidents and did not, including failures of the main engines and injuries to passengers after falls, he wrote.
The month after the audit, Simmons slapped the boat Phoenix with a health and safety improvement notice.
It said the Health and Safety at Work Act was likely being breached via an exposed anchor and chain posing a trip hazard, which had previously injured a passenger, along with guard rails of insufficient height to prevent falls over the bow.
The company sorted the issues by early August 2017, according to an email.
Correspondence in the aftermath of the eruption showed the three boats operating on the day had valid paperwork and their skippers held the required tickets.
Phoenix technically exceeded its maximum permissible number of passengers when evacuating 25 people from White Island because the boat Te Puia Whakaari was inoperable due to the ash fallout.
The company said in a statement that the breaches identified in 2017 were considered ‘‘minor’’ by the regulator. Its tours to Moutohora¯ /Whale Island resumed in January.