Whakaari/White Island: NZDF shows 'absolute courage' in an unpredictable environment

Friday, 13 December 2019

The grim task lies ahead for the searchers.

They departed at a perilous break of light, with a six per cent chance of being consumed in another eruption.

Eight New Zealand Defence Force personnel in yellow body suits and gas masks braved the volatile conditions at ground, sea and air, to return bodies on Whakaari/White Island to the mainland.

It was a specialist bomb disposal team - the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squad - as well as New Zealand Army Medics on boats nearby, Senior Defence Officer Colonel Rian McKinstry said.

The weather conditions had been assessed and accepted: it was a clear, still morning, and the team had detailed mapping of the rough, difficult terrain provided by GNS.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media about recovery of six bodies from Whakaari/White Island.

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The recovery team sets off into the crater.

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Communication through radio, connecting those on the island, with officials and medics on nearby boats, and volcanologists at GNS, was at play.

The ground team worked quickly in pairs to move the bodies to a central location, where a helicopter transported them to the HMNZS Wellington navy ship, stationed a short distance from the island.

Within four hours they had ventured to the treacherous centre of the island and returned to stable land - recovering six bodies.

Another two of those bodies are still missing, one believed to be in the water, as divers continue to scour and search the ocean depths nearby.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said the location of that other body remains unknown, either remaining on the island, or in the ocean too.

Until the six recovered bodies have been assessed by the coroner in Auckland, they cannot be identified.

The recovery mission was 'unique', McKinstry said, but it's what these level-headed individuals had volunteered to do.

They are on standby 24/7, 365 days a year, to help the police with highly risky devices in chemical, radiological, situations.

The force showed absolute courage in an 'unpredictable, challenging environment', Bush said.

Police commissioner Mike Bush confirms that the search for two bodies continues, and six have been recovered.

Their exact experience - whether they waded through debris or knee-deep ash to reach those bodies - is not yet known.

But some images hint at the scale of the operation, one shows two yellow pinprick figures walking across a swirl of grey, mud-like ground.

McKinstry said he has not had a full-debrief with the team yet, but was 'incredibly proud' of their efforts.

'They serve with a sense of duty and a sense of pride.'

'It should not be forgotten that when they join the New Zealand Defence Force they do so knowing that they will be required to be placed in harm's way.'

A boat, possibly containing medical staff, is located near to Whakaari/White Island as the recovery mission takes place.

The recovered bodies were flown to Auckland, where they are undergoing identification procedures.

Though it was suggested identification of the bodies may be lost through speedy recovery, Bush was confident forensic assessment would determine who those victims are.

Defence force staff might need to return to the island at some safe point, to assist with more identification, he said.

And with two families still in the midst of a harrowing wait for closure, Bush said the operation was 'not over yet'.

'The assurance we are giving to family and whānau is that we continue to put every effort to locate those remaining two missing people.'