Whakaari/White Island: Government turns down family request to retrieve body

Thursday, 12 December 2019

A family that wants to personally recover the body a man killed on Whakaari/White Island has been turned down by the government.

Hayden Marshall-Inman, a tour guide from Whakatāne, died in Monday's eruption. On Wednesday, his brother Mark Inman emailed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's office saying he would like her to pardon his actions if he staged a personal recovery.

'With the current conditions of sunshine baking and decomposing his body, he's going from a situation where we could have an open casket to now more likely not having a body at all – due to your government's red tape and slow decision making,' Inman said in the email.

Staff from Ardern's office said they passed his message to police minister Stuart Nash. But on Wednesday night, Nash said in a press conference that a family member's request to go onto White Island had been turned down.

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Hayden Marshall-Inman was a local tour guide.

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Nash confirmed a letter had been received, but said authorities would not allow access to the island because of safety concerns. He did not refer to Inman by name.

Hayden Marshall-Inman was killed in the eruption.

'The last thing we want to do is to have further casualties in what is already a significant tragedy,' Nash said.

'We won't give anyone permission to go to the island, we need to understand the risk then we can work to mitigate the chances of anyone else being injured in this.

'The last thing we want to do is for people to risk their lives to go out to the island.'

Mark Law was one of three commercial helicopter pilots who courageously flew to the island immediately after the eruption, to evacuate patients.

He said the request was 'foolhardy, but I understand, out of frustration when in fact all they will be doing is putting themselves in greater harm.'

The bodies of eight of the 14 people killed in the eruption remain on the island. Nash said victim identification and recovery is the major priority for police.

'This is not business as usual, we need to understand the risk so we can mitigate the risk of any further fatalities.'

Minister of Police, Stuart Nash speaks to media at. a press conference in Whakatane.

Nash however paid tribute to the helicopter pilots who went over to the island immediately after the eruption .

Mark Law, his colleague Jason Hill, and another local pilot Tom Storey flew to Whakaari/White Island after learning emergency services were not heading out, and brough 12 people back to the mainland.

'Kiwis step up when they are asked to step up and this is a classic case of them putting aside their own safety, their own welfare,' Nash said.

New Zealand first responders amid the 'moon-like' ash after the White Island eruption.

Inman told The Project on Tuesday that the pilots had seen his brother's body and moved it onto a rise.

'We all know health and safety is important, but when health and safety starts to become a barrier to retrieval, that's when you get frustrated,' Inman said.

Storey said on The Project he had recognised his friend Marshall-Inman, who was 'in a pretty bad way'.

He wanted to go back, but was instructed not to. 'It's pretty hard to take, you want a bit of closure for your families and yourself,' Storey said.

Nash has asked Law to assist the police recovery team. He said Law's skill and knowledge of the island and victim identification will be invaluable to the successful recovery of the victims.

'What we now what to do is work with Mark and use that knowledge - he obviously knows the island incredibly well, he knows the positions of the victims we want to work with Mark to make sure we really optimise that opportunity.

He called their actions on Monday 'heroic'.

'In an era where we overuse the word 'hero', I think Mark's actions and the actions of the the helicopter pilots were truly heroic.'

Nash also said he had earlier met with police and council staff, where he reminded them to be transparent.

'I have arrived here tonight to ensure that police operations - and not just police operations but all operations - are doing whatever is possible so that these victims are removed from the island as soon as possible.'

He said deputy commissioner Mike Clement will take over operational control of the recovery after commissioner Mike Bush had to return to Wellington.