New Zealand judge clears White Island volcano owners of charges

The three brothers who own Whakaari White Island in New Zealand have had charges against them dismissed by an Auckland court judge on Tuesday.

Peter, Andrew and James Buttle were individually charged as directors of Whakaari Management Limited [WML] for health and safety failings ahead of the volcanic eruption in December 2019 that killed 22 people – including 17 Australians – and injured 25 others.

Judge Evangelos Thomas of Auckland District Court said: “There is no evidence in this case as to what happened behind the boardroom door at WML. Without that evidence, I cannot assess what a reasonable director would have done.”

Netflix also made a documentary last year on the tragic 2019 eruption of the White Island volcano which was titled “The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari”.

The three Buttle brothers inherited the island and owned it through a family trust.

On 9 December 2019, the volcano erupted unexpectedly while tour groups were visiting the island. There were 47 people on the island at the time.

The three brothers were charged by Worksafe – New Zealand’s health and safety regulator – with failing to adequately ensure the health and safety of workers and other people.

Local media reported that even though charges against the three brothers have been individually dropped, the trial regarding their company, WML’s role, is still ongoing.

Thirteen parties were implicated in this case, which included the three Buttle brothers, their company WML, the tour operator White Island Tours, various other tourism firms, as well as New Zealand’s volcano monitoring agency GNS Science and the National Emergency Management Agency.

The Buttle brothers and WML entered pleas of not guilty, and two additional tourism companies, ID Tours NZ and Tauranga Tourism Services, also on trial, did the same.

It was reported that the court is scheduled to consider applications from ID Tours NZ and Tauranga Tourism Services to have the charges against them dismissed on Wednesday.

Five other parties, including tour operators, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. The National Emergency Management Agency initially pleaded not guilty but later successfully applied to have the charges against them dismissed.

One of the brothers, Peter Buttle, told the court this week: “What happened was a shock to everybody. It’s easy to look in hindsight, and I wish we knew and I wish we had the ability to have a bit of foresight because what happened was a terrible disaster.

“We believe we had put in place everything that we could possible have put in place to ensure the operators operated safely, and we were very confident in the operators we have that they were extremely safety conscious.”

The Buttle family has owned the volcano since 1936, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that they started offering tours to the island.