Most of the tourists on the island at the time were from the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship,and the Royal Caribbean cruise line is facing legal action in Australia.
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Four guides employed by White Island Tours were caught up in the disaster – Hayden Marshall-Inman and Tipene Maangi died,while Jake Millbank and Kelsey Waghorn were severely burnt.
In a statement on its website GNS Science said it had not yet been advised of the nature of the charges it was facing,and it would co-operate fully with the authorities while continuing its monitoring role.
”We stand by our people and our science which we will continue to deliver for the benefit of NZ.”
Helicopter operator Volcanic Air said was taking time to consider the detail of the charges before commenting further.
Parkes said the investigators concluded the 13 parties did not meet their health and safety obligations in taking tourists to the island.
“It is now up to the judicial system to determine whether they did or not,” he said.
“This tragedy has had a wide-ranging impact on victims,families,communities and iwi.
“Those who went to the island,did so with the reasonable expectation that there were appropriate systems in place to ensure they made it home healthy and safe.”
As well as the WorkSafe enquiry,Police have been investigating the disaster on behalf of the coroner and they announced last week that the total toll had risen to 22 following the death of 64-year-old Horst Westenfelder.
He died on July 2 in an overseas hospital where he was being treated for injuries received in the eruption.
“How many months my joyful,sensible and strong husband was fighting for his life,” she said.
“I am thankful to everyone who was thinking of us and helping us during that very hard time.
“He lost this battle and started his last journey in July. It is an irreplaceable loss for our family,his friends and of course for myself. I will always miss you.”
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White Island Tours had passed the safety audits required of operators on WorkSafe’s adventure tourism register,and in 2018 it has won the small business category for the Safest Places to Work Awards which recognised the way it managed the safety of crew and clients on tours to the active volcano.
White Island Tours has not publicly commented in any detail on its decision-making processes,but Ngāti Awa Holdings chairman Paul Quinn has previously told media that at level 3 alerts and above they liaised more directly with GNS,and level 2 was still"within our operational guidelines."
Quinn said on Monday that two charges of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act were laid against the White Island Tours company,rather than employees or directors,and the community would come together to mourn the victims and pay its respects on the first anniversary of the tragedy next week.
Following the disaster WorkSafe confirmed its investigation would look at the registration status of all those taking tours to Whakaari,which included a number of helicopter operators.
WorkSafe had repeatedly told Volcanic Air,Kahu NZ and Aerius Helicopters they should have been registered under the Adventure Activity Regulations,a call repeated just weeks before the December eruption.
However,the helicopter operators claimed 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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