New Zealand launches body recovery mission
Team has special gear as it searches volcano
WHAKATANE, New Zealand — New Zealand police and military specialists launched a risky operation Friday to recover the bodies of eight victims of an island volcanic eruption that has left at least eight others dead.
Just after first light, two helicopters from the New Zealand Defense Force lifted off from the township of Whakatane and traveled 30 miles to White Island off New Zealand’s eastern coast.
Eight military specialists wearing protective clothing and using breathing apparatuses landed and were trying to recover the bodies, police said. Scientists have warned that gases on the island after Monday’s eruption are so toxic and corrosive that a single inhalation could be fatal.
Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement told reporters Thursday evening that drones had pinpointed six bodies, but the location of two others was unknown.
Police, military and other personnel monitored the recovery operation from a ship stationed just off the island. Volcanologists aboard the ship used electronic equipment on the island to provide the recovery team with real-time information on the volcano’s behavior.
Scientists have warned that volcanic activity has increased in recent days and the island is “highly volatile.”
That has delayed the recovery of the last victims of Monday’s eruption, which occurred as 47 tourists and their guides were exploring the island.
Along with the bodies left on the island, eight other people were killed and dozens were severely burned by the blast of scalding steam and ash.
“The risk has not passed,” Clement said. “The people who are going to be protected by the equipment they will wear tomorrow are few and far between, and so we have spent considerable time making sure we have the right people with the right skills and the right equipment.”
New Zealand medical staff were working around the clock to treat the injured survivors in hospital burn units, and specialist medical teams are due to arrive from Australia, Britain and the United States.
The size of the task was clear when Dr. Peter Watson, a chief medical officer, said at a news conference that extra skin has been ordered from American skin banks.
White Island is the tip of a mostly underwater volcano that’s about 30 miles off New Zealand’s North Island and has been a popular attraction visited by thousands of tourists each year.
Authorities say 24 Australians, nine Americans, five New Zealanders, four Germans, two Britons, two Chinese and a Malaysian were visiting the island Monday at the time of the eruption. Many were from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that had left Sydney two days earlier.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday that some injured Australians had been evacuated and such flights would continue. Australia previously said up to 10 such patients would be transferred to hospitals in Victoria and New South Wales for further treatment.
New Zealand’s Geonet seismic monitoring agency on Thursday lowered White Island’s volcanic alert level to 2, noting there has been no more eruptions since Monday, when the level had briefly been raised to 4. Its alert level since late Monday had been 3 on a scale where 5 signifies a major eruption.
Another eruption in the next day still remains a possibility, the agency said, noting that volcanic tremors are rising and steam and mud were being vented regularly.