Travel agents and managers of a New Zealand island where a volcanic eruption killed 22 people in 2019 failed to adequately prepare and warn visitors of the risks, prosecutors said on Tuesday at the start of the perpetrator’s trial, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

Rescuers on the White Island in 2019Photo: New Zealand Defense Force / AP / Profimedia Images

Most of the victims were tourists from countries such as Australia, the United States and Malaysia. During the eruption, which occurred on December 9, 2019, 47 people were on the island, most of whom suffered severe burns from gases and hot ash.

In November 2020, the occupational safety and health authority charged 13 people, but six of them, including helicopter and boat tour operators, pleaded guilty. Charges against the National Emergency Management Agency were dropped.

The five parties involved in the trial, which began on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty, include the company that manages the island, three of the company’s directors and two companies that provided tour booking agents on the island.

The prosecutor’s office says that the tourists were not informed about the danger of the volcanic eruption

Occupational health and safety prosecutor Christy Macdonald said she would show that managers of the company that runs the island failed to exercise due diligence about potential dangers to visitors and booking agents failed to provide adequate information about the risks.

“The volcano is extremely unpredictable. It can erupt at any time without warning,” MacDonald said in the lawsuit. “No one is suggesting that the timing of this eruption could be predicted … but it was predictable that it would erupt at some point,” she added.

The previous major eruption of the Isle of Wight volcano, also known as Wakaari by Māori and located about 50 kilometers from the town of Whakatane, on the east coast of the North Island, occurred in 2016.

Tourists are no longer allowed to access the island.

The lawyers argued that their clients were not responsible for the health and safety of those on the island as it was the responsibility of others. The jury trial is scheduled to last 16 weeks, and several victims of the eruption will testify.