“Someone needs to be held accountable”: Ovation of the Seas cruise passengers slam company for White Island disaster handling
Passengers from the cruise ship at the centre of the White Island volcano eruption have disembarked at Sydney Harbour, with some criticising the way the company handled the incident.
The Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Ovation of the Seas arrived in Sydney on Monday morning, a week after the disaster at the New Zealand island.
Most of the people killed or injured in the eruption were part of organised day trips from the ship.
Passenger Max Sum told the ABC said “the whole boat” stopped when the news of the eruption was announced.
Sum’s 11-year-old Russell said upon hearing the news, “I thought it was fake news. I was like that can’t be true.”
Kim Lee Eng, who was travelling with his wife and mother, said he was “very disappointed” with “a lot of communication from management” after the incident.
“This is a big company, 50 years old, so they should have had a contingency teams to deal with this,” Kim told news.com.au. “They were holding us on board – taking advantage of us.”
Karen Kociszewski said the company needs to be held responsible. “Someone needs to be held accountable, definitely the cruise company, because it’s sad people aren’t going home,” she said.
“You sign a waiver to say that, you know, you go there and if you break your ankle you’re not going to sue them, but you don't go there thinking this is going to happen.”
Jo-Anne Henderson said the atmosphere on board was “very somber” for the past week.
“It was terrible, we were all so sorry that we were enjoying ourselves while people were getting blown away,” she said.
“It was very somber on board. A lot of crying. A lot of people crying for many, many days, even up to yesterday there were still tears. It was so painful, it broke my heart.”
Henderson commended the ship crew for keeping the passengers up to date. “Our captain was wonderful. He kept popping up and making announcements to let us know. Royal Caribbean did a brilliant job,” she said.
US tourist Jennifer Highfield said while the employees on board were helpful, more facilities could have been made available.
“The ship constantly gave us information and counselling. But it would have been helpful to have free Wi-Fi to keep in touch with family and friends who were concerned. I had a package covering internet, but I know there was a lot of people on board who did not,” Highfield told the ABC.
“The captain was wonderful, we could tell it was heartbreaking for him personally. Even coming in today I felt a bit emotional.”