Safety laws waived for eruption rescue
Health and safety protocols were waived as Whakaari/White Island rescuers put their lives on the line to bring bodies back home, a newly released document shows.
The recovery mission, which brought back six bodies in the wake of the eruption, was a gruelling task for Defence Force’s SAS E Squadron team to undertake.
The team admitted they were unprepared for the ‘‘unbelievable conditions’’ and so too were New Zealand’s health and safety requirements, the NZDF document, requested by media under the Official Information Act, reveals.
It shows New Zealand’s Health and Safety Act didn’t have clearance for operational activity on a ‘‘volatile volcano’’.
To enable the team on the island, Defence Force chief Kevin Short had to sign a declaration that exempted the rescue team from following the criteria in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
The declaration, signed on December 12, stated NZDF couldn’t sufficiently eliminate inherent safety risks ‘‘operating within a volatile volcanic environment’’ to the level the act required.
‘‘Body recovery operations on Whakaari/White Island are unable to be effectively conducted whilst adhering to best practice safety requirements,’’ it said.
‘‘These operations include operating with specialist equipment within an atmosphere contaminated by toxic vapours and noxious chemicals and complicated by a threat of future volcanic eruptions.’’
The issues included an inability to escape from the effects of corrosive chemicals, eliminate the risk of inhaling toxic gases without equipment and inability to have medical staff in close proximity without exposing them to the same risks.
Clearance was given on the grounds of providing closure to victims’ families and the wider New Zealand public.
An operations plan was set out in which GeoNet Science estimated a 6 per cent risk of fatal event over a three-hour period in the crater and a 1 per cent risk for persons located at the shoreline.
As well as wearing specialised equipment, all members were required to carry acid neutralising pouches for self aid, and the team could not be on the island for more than three hours.
The rescue mission would be abandoned if GNS alerted a warning or possible eruption, there was a recovery team casualty or if the casualty evacuation chain was broken.
It would be put on hold if there was an incident of any ‘‘civilian/ media boat/aircraft’’. There were 49 people on or near the volcano when it erupted on December 9, 2019. The official death tolls stands at 21, including White Island Tours guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, 40, and Australian teenager Winona Langford, 17, whose bodies are still to be recovered.
The day of that recovery mission, NZDF Colonel Rian McKinstry told Stuff his team went beyond limits to recover the bodies of those killed.
Underneath three layers of special garments their bodies were drenched in sweat, gas masks fogging up, claustrophobic heat attacking their resolve, he said.
Mission commanding officer Matt, a member of the SAS whose identity couldn’t be revealed, said about an hour-and-a-half into the operation, fatigue had pushed the team to a crossroads.
They returned to the boat, poured water down their suits, and discussed what to do next.
‘‘Our thoughts were we can’t not do it. We were thinking, we don’t have enough time to stop again, we’ll find a way through this.’’
Adding two members to the team, they went back into the hostile territory and didn’t stop until the six bodies had been recovered.
‘‘Our thoughts were we can’t not do it. We were thinking, we don’t have enough time to stop again, we’ll find a way through this.’’
SAS mission commanding officer, whose team brought six bodies off the island