Tourism company White Island Tours has today apologised in an Auckland courtroom to the victims of the Whakaari / White Island eruption.
Twenty-two people died and another 25 were seriously injured in the 2019 disaster.
"No words do justice to the incalculable hurt and suffering of so many people," Richard Raymond KC said in court.
"White Island Tours repeats and reiterates its sincere regret for the role it played in the events of 9 December, 2019."
White Island Tours is one of five guilty companies giving sentencing submissions this week for health and safety failures.
The tour company has offered $5 million in compensation to the victims.
However, it was also critical of workplace health and safety regulator WorkSafe, which had signed off on a number of safety audits prior to the eruption.
The island's owners — Andrew, James and Peter Buttle — were not in court today.
The brothers' company, Whakaari Management Limited, has not offered reparation, and claims it is unable to pay a fine.
WorkSafe has argued the company is the most culpable.
"However we frame it, WML (Whakaari Management Limited) cannot be more culpable than the tour operators," Whakaari Management Limited lawyer James Cairney said.
"The tours that gave way to the risk by taking people to experience the hazard."
And while helicopter pilots won bravery awards for their efforts to save the injured, their companies were charged because they put tourists' lives at risk by taking them to the volcano before the eruption.
An affidavit from pilot Mark Laws was read to the court, describing how the victims' families had contacted him seeking more details about the day.
"I never tried to shy away from why we were doing the tours and what we understood about the risk as well, and they seemed to appreciate that."
Judge Evangelos Thomas is due to deliver sentencing on Friday.
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