Families of some victims of the Whakaari/White Island volcano eruption in December are suing the cruise line who they booked the tour to the volanco off the Bay of Plenty coast to.
Twenty-one people and others were injured when the volcano off the Bay of Plenty coast erupted on December 9. Nineteen of those who died were passengers on the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship.
According to ABC , a group of passengers and their family members have hired Sydney law firm, Stacks Goudkamp, to pursue legal action in Australia against the cruise operator Royal Caribbean for alleged negligence, breach of contract, and breach of Australian consumer law.
Allesandro Kauffman and his partner had just returned to their boat when the disaster happened. (Source: Other)
Lawyer Rita Yousef says Royal Caribbean told the passengers on the Ovation of the Seas "absolutely nothing" about the possibility or the risks of an eruption.
"It's had an amazingly horrific impact. People have lost loved ones. They had to witness them in hospital having been completely burnt, being completely unrecognisable from their horrific burns, and people are having to somehow pick up the pieces," Ms Yousef told the ABC.
"They were told in the brochure that all they needed to do if they were attending this tour was to wear enclosed shoes," she said.
"At the very least, Royal Caribbean, which held itself out to be responsible for this tour, should have been monitoring this, and communicating with participants as to the risk, and giving them the choice, an informed choice to decide not to go because of this risk.
"But what appears [to have] happened is that nobody [at Royal Caribbean] was monitoring or taking this level seriously."
1 NEWS reporter Paul Hobbs has the update just before 8.30am on December 13. (Source: Other)
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