Trapped in the volcano: How the cruise of a lifetime turned into a deadly nightmare | Four Corners

I could see just this enormous cloud of black and bright white steam and ash at that point there was definitely a shift of I guess shock and horror I remember that sinking feeling when I realized there were people probably on the island and then they were probably really tragic consequences when New Zealand's white island volcano erupted on December 9 last year there were 47 people trapped in the crater horrified sightseers were the first on the scene some people's quiet very quiet some people's screaming some people's crying [Music] there was no second-guessing no hesitation we kind of got to the victims and started helping them put in on gas masks in the Mora putting them in the recovery position making them as comfortable as we can just reassuring them that we are there we are there to help and we are going to get you off the island and you're not alone tonight on four corners the extraordinary efforts by ordinary people to rescue the victims of the white island disaster we investigate how much tourists were told and understood about the dangers of visiting New Zealand's most active volcano and we examine whether more could have been done to prevent this tragedy that's left 21 people dead and many others with lifelong traumatic injuries [Music] on December 4 last year the ovation of the Seas set sail from Sydney for New Zealand it was peak cruise season and thousands of Australians had bought tickets for one of the last troops before Christmas on board the Royal Caribbean cruise was a delayed lawyer Gavin de l'eau his wife Lisa and her 15 year old daughter Zoey Hosking Lisa and Zoey changed his life I just know that it's the greatest thing that ever happened to Gavin when I first met Lisa it was you could tell it was just something and it was just yeah so good to see most always just so happy [Music] they were really looking forward to it and then Gavin Sealand picture of them and that's why we're going through Sydney heads and said goodbye stride airline New Zealand also on the ovation of the Seas was Sydney family the Lankford's mum and dad Christine and Anthony and their teenage children Jesse and Winona John Cozad and his son Chris from New South Wales were on board to [Music] there were lots of families taking I suppose an early Christmas or a leading to their Christmas holidays and the mindset really is to be carefree to let the cruise company look after the holiday they've paid a lot of money they've planned for it they've taken leave from work the mindset is I can let them look after me one of the highlights offered to passengers was a day trip to visit white island volcano everyone just happened to mention that he was going to white island because he knew it was on my bucket list because I wanted to go there he didn't say not to tell anyone but as it turned out I was the only person in the family that he sort of let know they were provided with a brochure that was branded with Royal Caribbean branding they would have been provided with a ticket also branded with royal about Caribbean branding and they were told in the brochure that all they needed to do if they are attending this show was to wear enclose shoes the brochure promised tourists could get close to the drama it said gas masks help you get near roaring steam vents bubbling pits of mud hot volcanic streams and the amazing Lake of steaming acid they were told to think about whether they were okay with doing a strenuous walk people in wheelchairs were told that it probably wasn't a good idea for them to go on the island but generally all they were told is this was an adventurous fun thing to do and just to wear in clothes shoes what would they told about the risks and the risk of an eruption nothing absolutely nothing tourism New Zealand promoted white island to Australian travel agents as one of the country's hidden gems what island is an active volcano it's a cone volcano it's the type of volcano that a kid would draw at school it's a typical regularly erupting active volcano the different thing about white island is most of it's underwater so the tip of the island only is poking out through the ocean [Music] more than 18,000 people visited the island each year there would be something like a future going to Mars the landscapes so unique the colors are real fluorescent and different at such a harsh looking environment and it's active you know things are always changing Jews always sounds or vents and stuff you know it was just a real real awesome awesome place when you arrive at wide island you're transferred into a zodiac rubber boat usually six to ten people and you're then ferried to this rough concrete landing where you are gingerly helped from the boat onto the landing platform when you actually land on the island and you walk into the crater of the volcano you're actually walking right into the throat of an active volcano that is erupted frequently in the last several decades in 2016 scientists got a warning of just how dangerous an eruption on white island could be so there was an eruption in 2016 it was at night it was a similar eruption and that it had call him up in the air it produced a surge out across the ground it probably threw quite a lot of rock and ballistics but there was nobody on the island that's the big difference it was very clear that if people had been on that island at that time in 2016 it would have been very hard to survive and and we put that in our bulletins as our main communication mechanism afterwards to make that really clear the whole area where tourists walk when they visit the island was inundated with the deposits of that explosive eruption and that of course should immediately have raised an alert that it's a dangerous place to allow people to walk my personal point of view is they should have stopped tourist activities particularly in terms of landing on the island late last year the volcanic activity on the island increased on December 3 the government body that monitors white Island said the volcano may be entering a period where eruptive activity is more likely than normal we had raised the alert level to level two that's the highest level it can be at when it's not erupting that's because we could see tremor in the volcano increasing over those those months we could also see some increases in that gas that we're monitoring at the volcano indicating that unrest was was up a level two doesn't necessarily indicate that you will therefore get an explosive eruption you often do because things escalate but sometimes everything settles down and remains at level two we've gone out there before on a level two plenty of times and it's done nothing that would quite often change from a legal - to a level one but a level two in a level one as it's more dangerous driving on a road probably mean being out there you know do you think if Gavin had known that there was a level two risk he wouldn't have gone because he'd been the one of the risks so any danger those align himself so I'm quite sure that is favorable to danger on the morning of December 9 several tour groups were heading to white Island New Zealand residents Jeff Hopkins and his daughter lolani drove to [ __ ] on a the launch point for tours to the volcano we're really excited about going and we knew that we had a great day ahead of ourselves and we're really looking forward to it something I've always been real interested in and dad went when he was a lot younger so it was for me something that was real cool for us to do together their trip due to leave at 10 a.m. was run by a well-known group called white island tours which was the only operator taking people to the island by boat we checked in read a disclaimer signed in gave our next to kin details etc received a boarding pass which was a metal cone and then from there just across the road and waited by the boat for the crew to start loading Jeff and Alana can be seen here on the wharf waiting to get on the white island to his boat the Phoenix the video was filmed by Brazilian tourists Alessandro Kaufmann yeah we just take the camera and just film everything you know like a blog or vlog and like this Alessandra was on the tour with his wife Eleni yeah it was like just excitement to get there and you see how like hotties the last one first we can see there the white island so far as well it's huge it's amazing when we first got on the island there was a brief safety briefing and it was very very brief it was just you know don't touch anything don't take anything stay on the path and stay in between the tour guides that was kind of about it what were you told about what to do in the event of an eruption there was no safety briefing about what to do in an eruption lolani and I talked with the guide a little while later as we were on our tour and then we talked a little bit about eruptions and what to do interruptions so it wasn't to the group it was just between the three of us had they explained to you at all what to do if there was some sort of incident like an eruption I don't really remember that so I don't remember explanation body alessandro kept filming as the - a guide warned about getting too close to the steam area where these have put a bubbling water take that big question because it does have a cap look when children sort of beans up their feet and we may need to use your mask of the air tight if you did get in go for this thing especially turn your big to it and if you need to you can just crouch down the tour really just kind of took us up on a meandering path up to the crater past various sulphur deposits and vents etc it's very rugged and gray as rocks are but then that's intermingled was the beautiful yellows of sulphur crystals whites and then some of the streams that have got green and brown and red algae [Music] the walking track crossed a shallow Creek the group hiked towards the crater lake the highlight of the tour right in the center of the island we talked about the crater lake it's not excessively hot but highly acidic and it was always steaming but it was a bit of wind about and as the wind blew the steam every now and again you could get a glimpse of the lake did you feel at any point like there was a risk that the volcano could erupt yeah sure I think all the time all the time and we I think in this risk you know you have to risk about everything you know when you walk to the street or when you take your car to go somewhere everything you got a risk while they would there lolani photographed a helicopter run by volcanic air landing on the island with a pilot and four passengers as their group made its way back to the boat they passed the ruins of an old sulphur factory and Alessandro checked his watch it was 11 minutes to 2 22 minutes before the eruption we weren't in any hurry to get back onto the boat people had started to load on the inflatable we knew there was another tour on the on the island because their boat was was anchored in the bay as well as Alessandro headed back to the jetty he filmed another white Island to his boat anchored in the bay it had brought 38 passengers from the ovation of the Seas including Gavin Dallow his wife Lisa and her daughter Zoe among their tour guides would tip any monkey Kelsey Waghorn and Hayden Marshall Inman they'd been reviled on to us ten years and he started as a guide many enjoyed people his passion for people was huge and his passion for the outdoors and the ocean was massive so for him to fill in to a job where he could get all the above like the perfect perfect opportunity for him as the group from the Phoenix left the island they took some final photos looking up towards the crater lake at one point the captain said over the tannoy if you look in the distance right against the steam cloud of the crater lake you can see some dots and those dots were the other tall party so he pointed them out there were people up there on the crowded lake what do you know about that crater is that it's an amphitheater shaped crater with very steep sites so you're totally enclosed within a confined space with nowhere to escape should an event suddenly occur [Music] at 11 minutes past 2:00 the Phoenix and its passengers were about to head back to the mainland when the volcano erupted [Music] as I turned around I could see over the top of the canopy as I looked up just this enormous cloud of black and bright white steam and ash quite beautiful but just towering I had a know a few hundred meters up into the sky and instantly I I knew it was erupting but it just in that second there was just something that that was quite beautiful about it [Music] these first pictures were filmed by the passengers is their boat headed away from the island [Music] the eruption was short it only lasted a minute or two it was a steam eruption the key thing with these steam eruptions as they're unpredictable it generated a column of ash and hot water and steam straight up and then led into a surge of hot steam and ash moving outwards across the ground it also looks like it had some flying rocks some what we call ballistics coming through the air as well the system that exploded the hydrothermal system would have been at 2 or 300 degrees or more there was no opportunity to provide the tourists with a warning that there was an impending eruption and given that the debris is flying through the air at speeds of up to 100 meters per second that means that people would have had no warning and no opportunity really to seek any safety on the Phoenix or quickly turned to horror we are outside i canna back the boat and I just thought the people outside just go inside because I know that the the clowns come to us there was a rolling ash cloud that came up to the top of the cliff and as a tumbled over the cliff and as it tumbled down to the cliff kind of came out and started to come out to the sea that completely obscured the whole island I'd never seen anything anything like it but at that point there was definitely a shift of of I guess shock and horror man Jesus oh man I'm sure look everybody sat down and I think that stage was when the reality was really kicking in the we knew there were other people on the island 47 people including 38 passengers from the ovation of the Seas were still on the island after escaping the ash cloud the captain of the Phoenix turned back to the jetty to help the island was now just monotone gray there was no color to it at all it was as if someone had taken a a can of under coat spray and just sprayed everything the other tour groups boat that was anchored again was completely and perfectly evenly covered in ash the first thing I could see was one person in the water swimming out to that boat and then I could see another person swimming and then I saw a third person and then I could see others that were gathered around the jetty where we'd gone on and off from where we landed on the island the next thing they saw was the mangled volcanic air helicopter that had been blown off its landing pad the helicopter was just looking crippled with his broken rotors and at that stage the crew had lowered the inflatable boat and they'd started a rescue mission to pick people up one of the tour guides that I had spoken quite closely with she came in to get some first aid kits and me and dad went up and asked her if she needed help because we both have our first aid certificates and she said that she needed all the help she can get she's got multiple burn victims as injured survivors were brought on to the Phoenix the crew asked passengers not to film when the first people God's abode like most of them was really really hard we start to help them to clean that ash in the earthling pen might be so people's quiet very quiet some people's screaming some people's crying first thing that I saw was a survivor came on the back of the boat and she was just like burnt like I've never seen burns before some were just in t-shirts and shorts so their arms were burnt or their legs were burned and really all we could do was just try and cool them with fresh water a lot of them had lost skin so put clothing over it to act as skin and then would pour water onto that clothing and then once we had I guess called people's burns I cleared eyes and Airways people had ash in their mouths it was a case of keeping people from going in and out of consciousness people going in shock one of the first people brought on board was Kelsey Waghorn the white island to his guide who survived with terrible burns she had severe burns to her hands her arms her legs due to I guess her clothing and quite a few people that had very I guess protective clothing on we're mostly just burnt on their faces and their hands and which were not as severe as those that had burns over their whole body the most severe burns were ones that had no skin left it would just kind of dripped off them like wax and that's something that I never thought I'd ever see um and something I hope I never have to see again with more than 20 victims loaded on board the Phoenix quickly became crowded I ended up at the front of the boat with six of the most critical and these were laid out on the floor in and out of consciousness I shot not really making any sound at all as opposed to I guess the ones at the back which were more screaming crying and there was a real mixture in there Jeff was on the front of the boat with American Lauren URI she was on her honeymoon with her husband Matthew they were both seriously injured but survived she was in so much pain as she was burn pretty much across most of her body she was then started to drift in and out of consciousness she really became my myself focus she asked me not to leave her and I promised I wouldn't and that became I wasn't going to break that promise that's where I stayed there are the moments that everyone was feeling so cold you gave all of the clothes the tops the jackets we could to keep them warm but there is a moment that it was enough it was enough they were feeling so cold they were losing temperature so what I could do was hug them trying to warm up with arms and their body and you think it to me make them alive maybe another victim brought onto the Phoenix was 72 year old Australian man John Kaase ad who'd been on the volcano tour with his son Chris I remember this elderly guy and he was will you worried with his son he was the person who was most worried about he was feeling cold and he was started to get purple and really really quiet I was so worried I just hugging if I could do that moment till we got the cost I did it and I saw after he was coming back his collar I think it helped John survived but his son Chris died later in hospital they seemed like eternity to get the cost again because it wasn't really fired Ireland's far from the course people on the mainland saw the eruption but they had no idea the horror that was unfolding to a guide Hayden Marshall inman's brother Marc could see the volcano from his home I think the first contact I had was for my wife and she could see some smoke you see what's going on is that white Island I said what do you mean you can see smoke is that white I said I won't have a quick look I made a few phone calls firstly to my dad if you didn't go to work today was one of the first things you know and we both couldn't get hold of him uh we just made the assumption that he had gone which he had and he'd gone as a guide rather than a skipper this day [Music] as news of the eruptions spread a group of helicopter pilots who regularly took visitors to white island launched a remarkable rescue operation it was about quarter past two my phone rung in another pilot Luke Lamont who works out that Co who rang me and said up the island look like it was blown up I didn't know if anyone was on the island I just decided I was going to be more help back at the hangar if there's anything I could do to help Tom's boss mark Lord jumped in one helicopter Tom and another pilot Jason Hill got into another we were just going there hoping that we were going to find everyone taking photos of it safe and sound volcano five ghost counselor and a loser in nearby Rotorua volcanic air pilot Tim Barrow was in his hangar when he heard about the eruption I grabbed the first aircraft that was ready to fly basically and one of my guys and we got airborne there was no second guessing no hesitation it was as simple as going and getting the job done that's the best of our ability they didn't know it as they flew out there but there were 20 people still on the island some badly injured others already dead I suppose my first recollection was the view that I got from the advantage of being high you know being able to look down into the crater and seeing the steam in the ash we landed behind that helicopter that was blowing off the pier I was at that point there that me and Jace at each other and realized there must have been quite a significant force to push that helicopter off they aired that far and through the damage it had done so that was really we not heard that yeah this is this has been quite a serious I mean mark grabbed us and gave us a plan to do so pretty much you know right cause we've got some victims during this vicinity there is a range of different injuries we'll go there and just help them as much as we can to help arrives so we're going to got to the victims started helping them put in on gas masks giving them water putting them in the recovery position making them as comfortable as we can just reassuring them that we we are there we are there to help and we are going to get you off the island and you're not alone the conditions they were working inward toxic without a gas mask it was really hard to breathe almost impossible to breathe just a real real sharp sting in your throat and sweet or anything we did enjoy or anything in the oils wearing sunglasses yeah you always would start burning and some places it was going to have a foot deep of ICH going to halfway up tea any and that you're running through and kinda quite eerie is the volcano you could still see it was stashing at the time we're out there it was still raining ash on us the pilots carried a total of 12 people onto three helicopters I know of one person that I carried that was alive when I was carrying but by the time I got to the helicopter I had a suspicion that and they may have passed away I told mark and Maxie that we'll just carry on and just just put them in the obviously I felt hugely concerned for the two survivors that we had on board they weren't in good shape and I wish I could have sped that flight up a hundred times and had those guys back in a millisecond and not the time a tuck what condition were they in when we help them off the chopper one of our passengers sadly had passed away on the flight back and the other one was in a bad way [Music] despite the risk of another eruption Tom's stayed on the island to search for more survivors as he ran down the creek towards the sea he found the body of two a guide Hayden Marshall Inman to be honest it was no surprise I came across Hayden's body if anyone was going to be left on the island it's gonna be Hayden I kinda ran down to him and pulled him out of the creek and just propped him up on the rock and at that stage I thought right start running around and see if we can find any more people further up the creek Tom found the body of another guide Tiffany monkey what was pretty obvious is that the first group of people we had found there was a 40 at first aid kit they opened so we're 100% suits and that's happening in Hayden actually come across that group and help them and started offering them first aid and I think a huge part of us being able to find those people still alive was because of those two guys actions there were five other bodies nearby I found two girls that were there at the time unfortunately they passed away not long after I'd found them so just made them comfortable as we could and it wasn't till we were coming back along by the factory that we found another victim across the creek from us and so we cross the creek in and we knocked to that victim unfortunately they were they were passed away that was 17 year old teenager Winona Langford she'd been on the tour with her parents Christine and Anthony and brother Jesse only Jesse survived finally search-and-rescue paramedics arrived by helicopter and landed near the jetty I talked to a medic there explain to them where I placed the bodies that we had eight victims that I knew of at the time that were all deceased I didn't know if anyone else was on the island at that point I just could just identify the eighth that we'd come across I was at that point that we were then instructed to leave the island when the injured survivors arrived at the mainland they were met by emergency services there was everyone you could ever managed and there were doctors they were fire they were ambulance there was Coast Guard and they were getting us to help them with those who are most critical and then getting them off the boat those that could walk or walk to the restaurant on stretchers mark Inman was still waiting for news of his brother Haden that first boat arrived and Haden wasn't on it and obviously a lot of his friends are in the crew and one of the skippers actually said that Haden didn't didn't get on the boat he's not on the boat especially on this one and he's not there and in that meantime we'd heard from the pilots that they're pretty sure he had never made it [Music] on board the cruise ship the ovation of the Seas families were waiting for their loved ones to return from the day trip to white island hours passed before they found out what had happened there are accounts of people who only found out about this tragedy through a panicked phone call from a family member back in Australia saying turn on the TV and look at what's happened on my Island the accounts I've heard of that the staff members did not communicate and when they were confronted about it they told the family members to sit in a room for an extended amount of time and with no information and wasted precious hours that they could have been using to see their family members in hospital before a lot of some did pass away Gavin de l'eau his wife Lisa and her daughter Zoey were among those who hadn't returned to the cruise ship as we go to air tonight at least 27 people are missing after a volcano erupted off the coast of New Zealand one person has been confirmed dead we were watching me 6 o'clock news New Zealand's most active volcano exploded and then they're fearing and said the day was on the oil so the first instinct to curse was to Dolly's mobile phone several times but we didn't answer that's right so we knew there was something gap we knew Gavin was on the island we knew though he was on the island we knew they were in the shore party we were told that by oh the authorities in New Zealand and so we knew they were in that party but you have no idea who got off or who didn't and who was burnt and who had been injured and all those sorts of things so you had no idea you just knew they were there that was in vine I think could they fake a bail more on to be you something was really wrong and on Saturday there are Angus society that he'd been officially identified and from then on it was just a matter of bringing now there were eight bodies still left on the island the effort to rescue them was delayed because of fears of another eruption we were sort of almost assured that it don't worry we've put him somewhere and we're heading back and then when that when that call was made not to go back there was a moment in time that changed everything mhm yeah that that moment in time meant we'd never see em again when official rescue teams arrived on the island four days later only six bodies were there the bodies of Hayden Marshall Inman and Winona Langford had been washed away by heavy rain there isn't a day goes by that you don't or should there isn't a day go by you don't think about both we're not no Hayden says we said Hayden Hayden would always be the last man standing he's become the guardian of Picardy and he he had opportunity to come home and he chose to stay and and look after it when I know so among the bodies recovered was Gavin dello stepdaughter Zoe Hosking Gavin's wife Lisa had survived but was badly injured she was one of the people rescued by the pilots if we have made a difference to one person's life it's all been with you know it's all with it yeah fantastic and you know that's if that's the case that's there's a wonderful result in New Zealand WorkSafe and the coroner are both looking into the tragedy but their investigations could take more than a year I don't put any blame on wild and tours they gave me an opportunity twice to be on that island and to experience it and thousands of people have been able to do that without incident I'm satisfied that you know what what they talked to us about I didn't expect anything more from them and certainly after the eruption I've never thought they could have done more there's no way in this world that any of us would have put people on the island if we'd thought for a moment not one millisecond that there would have been a result like this 19 of the 21 people who died were from the Ovation of the seas Sydney lawyer Rita Youssef is representing passengers and family members who believe the cruise operator Royal Caribbean didn't do enough to warn its guests this particular volcano was at level 2 at the very least Royal Caribbean which held itself out to be responsible for this tool I should have been monitoring this and communicating with participants as to the risk and giving them the choice an informed choice to decide not to go because of this risk how much responsibility is on the participant in the tour to do their own research to find out how safe or unsafe something is I would say none and that's because they're relying on this company to do that for them they're handing over money their hard-earned money for somebody else to be responsible for that for many families the grief is still very raw I think probably like anybody in the same situation we're having our moments we've got these Casey [Music] so help me the next bit of trauma love gotta go through things are just not gonna go away for a while yeah so we just lived oh boy die I know that not everyone survived unfortunately but I just constantly just wished the best for their families and for that those people almost survived [Music] what the rescuers saw that day will stay with them forever but their efforts to save the victims of the white island eruption won't be forgotten I think I would be brave because I would go off their arms as fast as I could or blast anybody's if I picked up they cut their own lives in danger that official why does hope that falls Eva or any of my family members are in that same situation and someone would do the same for them yeah and just hope that leave I've got a bit of reassurance that we we were there to help them man and we tried our best to make them as comfortable and as peaceful as we could I'm just so glad they did what they did absolute bloody heroes and you know and I hope for their sake that what they've seen doesn't hold them for a long long time [Music] you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 2,964,491

Keywords: volcano, new zealand, eruption, White Island, victims, Royal Caribbean, New Zealand volcano tragedy, cruise, cruises, investigation, documentary, investigative journalism, Australia, Sydney, victim, burns, pilot, helicopter, hero, tourists, tourism, cruise tourism, cruise ship, volcano monitoring service, GNS Science, explosion, erupt, black ash, survivors, survivor, tour guide, skin, Apocalyptic, safe, legal proceedings, ash, rescue choppers, save, perish, Whakatane, NZ, Four Corners, ABC News, Australian

Id: fndcCyYzXKg

Length: 44min 39sec (2679 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/PastelFlamingo150]

How the cruise of a lifetime turned into a deadly nightmare

Gilligan's Island is getting a gritty reboot.

[u/silverdweller88]

Yes, it's a volcano. No, I wouldn't have gone. Do I think it's a bad decision to go? Yes. Plenty of people make poor decisions and still get rescued every year. I understand making certain decisions about how you will rescue them safely to limit the dangers to rescuers. For instance, using boats which take longer may be more appropriate than using helicopters. However, the decision to abandon these people entirely by that crew that was 20 minutes away is extremely effed up and I have no respect for that.

Thank goodness for the brave people who stepped in to do the job of the rescuers. Also, there is a certain level of trust that people have in tour guides, I'm not saying you should trust them to this degree but how did the people who knew about the actual threat level fail to check it for weeks? That company clearly has no business operating in this way. I think everyone has some level of responsibility here that was not lived up to from the participants to the tour guides to the people who were supposed to rescue them.