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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
Veteran pilot John Funnell wants to raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund the legal battle of a fellow pilot who was one of the first on the scene after the Whakaari eruption.
Kahu Helicopters, Volcanic Air and Aerius are helicopter companies that operated excursions to the island and face legal action.
GNS, the National Emergency Management Agency and the island’s owners, the Buttles, have also been charged.
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The charges related to events before the eruption and had nothing to do with the rescue and subsequent recovery.
Funnell was in the air during the rescue directing the helicopters and communicating with those on the mainland.
He has created a fund for Mark Law, director of Kahu Helicopters, who rescued five people from the island, to help with the legal battles as his business is now on the brink of collapse.
“All the personnel have been fired, the helicopters they had rented have been returned. There were certainly penalties for that.”
“He has had to sell his hangar and liquidate the entire company.
“He’s interested in another helicopter that he’s trying to get going, but really in terms of revenue, he in particular is in a very difficult situation, but so are all these other helicopter operators.”
“They will all face similar financial problems.”
Funnell estimated that the legal bills could run into the tens of thousands, maybe more, for Kahu alone.
He said aviation and the wider community had come to him to offer financial support to Law.
“Well, it’s fair to say that a lot of people think that WorkSafe has vastly overstepped itself in this situation here.
Monique Ford / Stuff
Acting in eruption.
“Mark Law led the charge to get these people out of White Island.
“He and Tim Barrow of Volcanic Air were the two main operators along with their pilots who entered White Island immediately after the eruption and lifted people who were still on the island and brought them back to the mainland so that it could begin. the treatment”.
The veteran pilot said Kahu had been a leader in creating an emergency recovery plan, but WorkSafe disagreed.
“I am concerned that people like him and Volcanic Air have an inappropriate security plan. The rest of the industry has some major problems if that’s the case. “
If Law and the other helicopter companies were found guilty of health and safety law violations, they would not be in a position to pay the fines, he said.
Each charge carries a maximum of $ 1.5 million.
Funnell thought WorkSafe should point the finger at itself.
“Personally, I think that WorkSafe should be investigated by themselves, I think there has been a failure on their part.
“It is very easy for Worksafe after an event to come and make these claims about an unsafe operation.
“It’s easy to do that with all these charges, and there are a lot of them, and then it’s up to the operator to have to defend those charges and that’s where all the costs come in.”
Funnell defended the actions of the pilots related to the disaster.
“Nobody set out to cause any danger to anyone that day, they had worked hard to go to White Island and minimize the risk.
“But this was, if you will, an act of God.
“None of the charges against him are going to bring these people back.”
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
