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New Zealand authorities say they will try to recover the bodies of volcano victims from White Island on Friday.
Key points:
- Experts have warned the volcano remains volatile
- NZ Police confirmed the number of deaths had risen to eight, including six Australians
- The death toll is expected to rise over the coming days
"I can now confirm that we are finalising a plan to recover the bodies from Whakaari/White Island tomorrow morning," Deputy Commissioner John Tims said, adding families would be briefed on the operation.
However, volcanic geologist Graham Leonard said during a press conference on Thursday, that the volcano remained in the red zone and was still volatile.
"Effectively, the red zone is a no-go for staff and the others need special approval. Police make their own decisions," he said.
"We have shared our risk assessment shown here with police and these zones are dynamic as the status of the volcano is highly volatile and uncertain and these maps are updated daily."
Experts estimate the likelihood of eruption has moved to 50 to 60 per cent in the next 24 hours.
Mr Leonard was asked by reporters if police could make a decision to re-enter the island tomorrow, based on the latest information.
He replied: "I would not personally have given that [advice] to them, it has been transferred."
Deputy Commissioner for National Operations, Mike Clement, also said it was still too risky for crews to retrieve the victims' bodies.
New Zealand Police have confirmed the number of deaths has risen to eight, including six Australians.
Others are in various hospitals across New Zealand being treated for injuries on up to 90 per cent of their bodies.
New Zealanders Hayden Marshall-Inman and Tipene Maangi have also been confirmed among the dead.
On Thursday morning, Knox Grammar School in Sydney's north released a statement confirming the loss of two of its students — brothers Matthew Hollander (year 8) and Berend Hollander (year 10) — who died in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in the eruption.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed five injured Australians had been returned to Australia and were being treated in hospital, and another seven would be flown home in the next 24 hours.
'We could land, pick them up and bring them home'
The New Zealand police official in charge of the recovery operation has denied authorities were disregarding the advice of local pilots who said the bodies of victims could have been retrieved by now.
Yesterday Mark Law, one of the helicopter pilots who helped rescue people from the island, told reporters he knew where the bodies were.
He said his team had offered to help police but were "stood down" by emergency services and were unable to fly out to the island.
"It takes 20 minutes to get out there, we know where they all are and we could land, pick them up and bring them home," he told New Zealand news site Stuff.
He told the ABC on Wednesday conditions were "perfect" to retrieve the bodies.
"We could go and do that now and that's the frustrating part," he said.
"I think it's frustrating for people who know the island and have been going there for a long time."
New Zealand's former civil defence and foreign affairs minister Gerry Brownlee told RN Breakfast it was reasonable to be cautious about returning to the island.
"I think police are showing the right amount of caution, it would be appalling if in a recovery effort you lost further life," he said on Thursday morning.
"Once you're on the island, if the thing blows, it's sudden, it's an explosion.
"It's a dangerous place."
"There is the blanketing of the ash that spews out — that ash is incredibly hot and sadly some of the people who are currently under treatment will have inhaled some of it so it's internal damage they're trying to deal with."
Families 'desperate and frustrated'
Whakatane Mayor Judy Turner said she appreciated the need to consider safety, but understood the feelings of families of victims who wanted answers.
"We are now living with a growing sense of desperation to bring home those that we know are there and those we love," she said.
"The frustration of those families most affected is completely understandable and so the need for regular updates is now absolutely essential.
"No news is not good news for people in this situation."
Mr Morrison acknowledged there had been "frustrations" with information being released at a press conference on Thursday morning.
"You can never have enough information when you're concerned about the safety and the wellbeing of one of your loved ones," he said.
"[Department of Foreign Affairs] and our offices there are doing everything within their power to provide as much information as they can.
"In the days ahead, there may be the opportunity for that recovery operation to be in place and when that occurs, there will be the very grim task of identification and the further news that will follow from that."
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, volcanic-eruption, new-zealand, australia
First posted