Whakaari/ White Island: Three helicopter companies all unregistered for adventure activities

Thursday, 12 December 2019

Helicopter pilots who helped fly victims of the White Island eruption had a tough job.

Three helicopter companies flying to Whakaari/White Island were told two years ago they should be registered as adventure operators.

Worksafe said it had repeatedly tried to get Volcanic Air, Kahu NZ and Aerius Helicopters to comply with the Adventure Activity Regulations which require operators to pass independent safety audits.

Just weeks before Monday's fatal White Island eruption WorkSafe again told the companies they should be registered and Worksafe said the registration status of all operators would be part of its investigation into the disaster which killed at least eight people.

However, the helicopter operators claim they received conflicting advice about whether their White Island ground tours were covered by the adventure activity regulations, and they had spent months waiting for a definitive answer from Worksafe.

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The health and safety agency administers a register of 310 commercial adventure activity operators but White Island Tours, which takes visitors by boat, is the only registered White Island operator.

The lack of registration of three of the four operators taking tourists to White Island speaks to the chaos around adventure tourism regulation.

The regulations define adventure activities as those designed to deliberately expose participants to a serious risk to their health and safety, including deliberate exposure to dangerous terrain, and Worksafe said that would include walking on an active volcano.

A helicopter used to transport a tour group to the Island was badly damaged by the blast which killed six people and left 25 critically injured.

According to the Worksafe website it is an offence for an adventure activity operator to be unregistered unless they are exempt by being covered by another regulatory body.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that while it covered aircraft operations, the ground component of a tour where customers were transported by helicopter fell under Worksafe.

The death toll from the eruption on White Island will rise, with eight missing on the island, presumed dead.

The latter said it has been very clear in its communications to the White Island helicopter operators.

'In our most recent correspondence, we advised Volcanic Air on 18 November 2019, that we considered that [it] had had sufficient time to consider the advice and reasoning from WorkSafe over an extended period and that we would be looking for clear movement towards compliance within a reasonable time-frame.'

All three helicopter companies advertised guided tours of White Island ranging in price from $730 to $1095 for the opportunity to get a close up view of volcanic vents, hot streams and the crater lake with some trips open to children as young as five.

When the eruption occurred, Volcanic Air had a pilot and four passengers on the island, two of whom received minor burns, and they were evacuated by boat after their chopper was wrecked in the explosion.

Worksafe said it was up to the operators to assess whether they should register as adventure activities, but the system was 'not opt in'.

Volcanic Air chief pilot Tim Barrow, who helped fly victims to safety, defends his company's approach to safety.

But Volcanic Air chief pilot Tim Barrow said there had been confusion over whether the trips were classed as adventure activities and Worksafe had flip-flopped over whether helicopter companies flying to White for ground tours should be registered as adventure activities needing regular safety audits.

In a written statement Barrow said discussions between Worksafe and the three helicopter concessionaires visiting White Island about the need for registration had been ongoing for three years, and each company had received differing advice.

'Volcanic Air was initially told by Worksafe it [registration] was not required. A couple of years later it was changed to, yes it would be required.'

Kahu NZ chief executive Mark Law said he would not have sent his staff out to White Island if he thought there was a risk.

Eight months ago Volcanic Air sought clarification from WorkSafe on that view and was now considering a response received in November.

Barrow said the company would happily go on the register and it had recently been audited by Qualmark NZ which looked at both its air and ground operations.

Aerius Helicopters said it was 'in the same boat' as Volcanic Air regarding the registration issue and declined to comment further.

Kahu NZ chief executive and pilot Mark Law said they already underwent safety audits for their helicopter operations.

NH90 helicopter from the Royal New Zealand Air Force's 3 Squadron lifting a 2.4-tonne shipping container to the volcanic White Island.

He did not believe the company needed to be on the adventure tourism register, and he had difficulty getting a definitive answer from WorkSafe about why it was necessary.

'They only made that clear last month after two years of going back and forth.'

Law said there were no independent audits of his White Island ground tours.

He had halted Qualmark audits because they seemed like a tickbox exercise and the auditor declined the offer of a trip to White Island to see how it was managed.

'I know we are doing our best to take care of everyone.'

Qualmark, owned by Tourism New Zealand, runs a quality assurance programme for visitor activities and chief executive Gregg Anderson said they had Qualmarked Volcanic Air, White Island Tours and Aerius Helicopters.

Qualmark said that being on the adventure activity register was not part of its assessment and WorkSafe said Qualmark was not accredited to carry out adventure activity safety audits.

Hemi Morete is a lead auditor with AdventureMark which does risk assessments of adventure tourism operators.

He said White Island Tours had undergone annual audits over the past three years and 'never had anything more than a minor non-conformity'.

Those reports had been passed to Worksafe for its White Island investigation.

Assessments of adventure tourism operators also looked at whether they gave customers an accurate picture of the dangers they might encounter on a trip so they could make an informed choice about whether to take part, said Morete.