Tourism industry body backs Whakaari/White Island chopper operators in registration row

Monday, 16 December 2019

Deputy Commisioner Mike Clement gave an update on the recovery operation on Whakaari/White Island. The recovery team returned and went through a decontamination process.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa has backed White Island helicopter operators who were not registered to run adventure activities.

Two years ago WorkSafe told three helicopter companies they had to register their ground tours of the active volcano where 47 visitors were caught in last week's eruption, resulting in 16 deaths to date.

But TIA chief executive Chris Roberts has criticised WorkSafe for its 'selective release of information' and described the helicopter operators as 'professional safety-conscious businesses'.

When adventure activity regulations were introduced in 2014 to provide additional oversight, he said TIA helped to identify which businesses needed to come under the regulations, and which did not.

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'WorkSafe determined that helicopter operations to Whakaari White Island, already regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority, did not come under the regulations, and the operators were advised of this.'

The Volcanic Air helicopter destroyed by the White Island eruption. It is a 20 minute flight to the Island from Whakatane.

Three years later, the WorkSafe registrar of adventure activities notified the operators he had formed a different view, and Roberts said there had been ongoing correspondence since then, with gaps of up to eight months in responses from WorkSafe.

He said the health and safety agency should conduct an impartial investigation into the tragedy.

Members of the White Island recovery team going through the decontamination process at Whakatane airport.

'It is therefore concerning to see a selective release of information that needs to be properly considered in the fuller context.

'The agency seems more concerned about defending its own record than coming up with answers.

'The issue that needs to be thoroughly examined is whether anyone should have been on the island during a Level 2 alert, something that has been allowed for the past 30 years.'

However, WorkSafe said its 2014 decision was based on information supplied by one of the operators at the time.

In 2017, after being alerted by 'another party' it would not identify, WorkSafe established that the White Island guided trips in question did in fact require registration under the adventure activity regulations, which in turn require regular safety checks by certified auditors.

WorkSafe said it had asked the helicopter operators to comply and that position had been consistent over the past two years, but Volcanic Air said it would 'roundly reject' any suggestion it was 'stalling or trying to avoid good systems'.

In a written statement chief pilot Tim Barrow said that prior to the recent eruption, helicopter operators had worked with Civil Defence to come up with a plan where all concessionaires would work together to evacuate visitors if necessary.

Roberts said TIA had worked to 'imbed a safety culture' across the adventure tourism sector over the last decade and it had not received any safety complaints about operators in the past two years.

'Operators know what good practice is for running their activity. An external audit helps give assurance they are doing this, but it doesn't drive that practice – the culture does.

'Being covered by another set of regulations would have made no difference to what happened on Whakaari-White Island a week ago.'

There are currently 310 registered adventure operators and WorkSafe confirmed two staff managed the sector.

WorkSafe team leader of certifications, approvals and registrations Richard Steel said that since 2015, six operators had been suspended for not meeting audit requirements.

A further 29 registrations had been cancelled for businesses that ceased operating, or changed their operation so they no longer met the criteria of an adventure activity.

There is a $115 annual registration fee, and an auditor told Stuff the average cost to an operator for the three-year audit and surveillance cycle was approximately $5000, plus expenses.