The brother of a tour guide who died in the White Island volcano disaster said on Thursday that stalled efforts to recover victims’ bodies showed “leadership had failed.”
Hayden Marshall-Inman of New Zealand was among the first confirmed victims of Monday’s eruption, with emotional accounts of his final moments on the island recalled by helicopter pilots who helped survivors.
Holding back tears, his brother Mark Inman told TVNZ that authorities were taking too long to recover bodies, which he said could be picked up safely and securely by helicopter pilots like himself, who “know the island inside and out.”
“It’s not frustration that they can’t get to the island, it is more frustration that they haven’t gone to the island,” Inman said.
“There has been two perfect opportunities to get out there and they haven’t gone,” he said.
Inman wrote to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern earlier this week asking for permission to enter the no-fly zone to collect his brother’s body, a request he said was rejected.
Ardern admitted authorities need to do a better job of communicating retrieval efforts.
The death toll from Monday’s eruption is 16 people, including eight people still missing on the island and presumed dead.
Acknowledging the “frustrations” of relatives waiting for answers about their loved ones, authorities announced late on Thursday that police were planning to carry out a retrieval operation this morning — despite volcanologists’ warnings that the chances of another significant eruption in the next 24 hours had risen to between 50 and 60 percent.
Helicopter pilot Tom Storey went to White Island to rescue victims and told local media he moved Marshall-Inman to a more comfortable location while he helped other survivors, but was unable to get him off the island at the time.
An emotional Inman said that his brother loved his job and always put others ahead of himself.
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