CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A helicopter pilot said in court Thursday that he and two of his passengers escaped serious injury by jumping into the ocean when a volcano in New Zealand erupted in 2019, killing 22 people.
Two more of the passengers on pilot Brian Depauw’s joy flight did not make it to the water, being engulfed by a cloud of hot ash from the White Island eruption and suffering severe burns.
Belgian-born Depauw, who speaks with an Irish accent, testified in Auckland District Court on Thursday. in the trial of three tourism companies and three directors charged with security breaches for the December 9 disaster.
“The water is what saved us,” Depauw told the court.
Depauw and his four German passengers were among 47 people on White Island, the tip of an underwater volcano also known by its indigenous Maori name, Whakaari, when superheated gases erupted. Most of the 25 survivors suffered severe burns.
Depauw, who currently lives in Canada, said he had only been working for tour operator Volcanic Air for three to four weeks and was making his first unsupervised flight with the company the day the volcano erupted.
He had told his passengers, two German couples, during safety briefings: “If you see me running, I always make a kind of joke, follow me too.”
When the volcano erupted, the passengers wanted to get back into the helicopter, but the pilot decided that the water was a safer option.
“I heard my client say should we run now? I looked behind me and saw the plum go up 1000 or 2000 feet (305 or 610 meters) in height, I saw rocks and debris arcing towards us, so I said: ‘Run, run, run towards the water. Follow me,’” Depauw told police in a video statement recorded three days after the eruption and shown to the court on Thursday.
Depauw and one of the couples crossed the 150 meters (492 feet) to 200 meters (656 feet) to the water before the ash reached them.
“The moment I hit the water, it turned black. The ash came and obviously hit us and I couldn’t see anything,” she said.
“It would be a minute or two minutes. I was underwater trying to hold my breath for as long as I could until I saw some light through the ash,” Depauw added.
He then helped his two passengers who had avoided burns on a boat. The man had lost his glasses and the woman’s contact lenses were scratched by the ash cloud, making it difficult for both of them to see.
The couple that didn’t make it to the water “got pretty burned,” Depauw said.
Court photographs showed Depauw’s helicopter was brought down by the force of the volcano from its landing pad and its rotors were bent.
Under questioning by prosecutor Steve Symons on Thursday, Depauw said he had thought there would be warning signs before the volcano erupted. He did not know at the time that the volcano had erupted in 2016.
“The way I understood there would be some signs and some time to vacate the island” if the volcano was about to erupt, Depauw said.
He said his only injuries were a cut knee, a strained muscle and some ash in his eyes.
The owners of the island, the brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle; his company Whakaari Management Ltd.; as well as tour operators ID Tours NZ Ltd. and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd. have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Other tour operators have pleaded guilty and will be fined at a later date.
The companies each face a maximum fine of NZ$1.5 million ($927,000), while each of the accused brothers faces a maximum fine of NZ$300,000 ($185,000).
The trial, scheduled to last 16 weeks, was adjourned on Thursday and will resume on Monday.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you must be a registered Torstar account holder. If you don’t have a Torstar account yet, you can create one now (it’s free)