There has to something wrong with people who would want to be on a very ugly, known to be active, volcano. Another case of sympathy for the the grieving families, but the victims were idiots of the sort who get even more idiotic in a mob situation. Another hugging opportunity for the poser, Ardern.

I found ttbn a little shallow as to the comment.

Tourists are going to be reliant on the tour operator for accurate info as to dangers, you are going to think if tours are going to be run regularly there must be a fair level of safety involved.

It is called duty of care. And why would an operator risk bankruptcy, let alone the deaths of customers who may return if the experience is interesting enough? The goose that lays the golden eggs is a dead duck here. I suspect the operators will be litigated back to the stone age.

And why the cheap shot at Ardern?

Binoy is again displaying his bureaucratic & communistic tendencies here simultaneously.

First he is horrified that some tourist operators should profit from giving tourists what they want, & he wants some bureaucrat to decide that the tourists should be allowed to do.

Who the hells life is it? If I want to do something, no matter how dangerous the Binoys of this world may think it to be, surely that is my right, not that of some clown in an office hundreds or thousands of miles away.

No amount of advertising will ever get a tourist to do what they don't want to do. Most would never undertake a scuba diving course, & go dive on the great barrier reef, & very few are attracted to a a trip through the Snowy mountains on a horse, but is that any reason why the likes of Binoy should be able to stop them doing it.

Many tourist operators are approaching benevolent operations. They risk considerable investment to enable tourists to indulge in an activity they could never organise for themselves, while making a very precarious living for much hard work. Dive the reef, ride the Snowy, or visit a volcano, all thing the average person could never do without the tourist operator.

Personally I think you have to be crazy to go near an active volcano, but then I believe racing my Brabham around Bathutst or sailing my 40 Ft yacht tens of thousands of miles around the Pacific islands are both worth the effort & what ever risk may be involved. That I'm still here proved the risk was very minor.

Thank god the Binoys of this world weren't able to stop me

Well for those who can't be bothered reading the whole dreary article then I've got good news- I've read it for you. And the essential sentence is right at the end:
"The question arising here is also one of human cost: at what point is life worth forfeiting for the ecstasy of danger, preserved by a snap of social media?"

And here is my answer:
The point lies for any given person where that individual thinks that the risk to their life is worth the experience/thrill/bragging rights gained.

Ie: people should be free to do whatever they like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. If what they chose to do ends up hurting/killing them then that's their own problem. It's all part of the once popular commonsense idea that you are responsible/accountable/culpable for your own actions.

Nobody is, or should be, more interested in his/her welfare than themselves.

Hasbeen,

Yep. People have to take responsibility for their own actions. Every time this sort of thing happens, up comes a media witch hunt looking for someone to blame. The only people to blame are those victims of their own stupidity. What is not obvious about a hissing, active volcano that last went up in 2001, and has previously erupted more than once? Volcanologists have said that they wouldn't have set foot on it. I wonder how many of the tourists had harped on believing the science when it's dodgy rubbish on climate change, but who ignored the science that could have kept them alive.

What's needed are helecopters aeroplanes drones and spotters, followed by drum lines and nets, to keep tourists free from harm in the natural environment.

We need to make government accountable to the people, and ensure the safety of every individual, whatever their activity, and in spite of whatever the risk these activities may bring.

We need government supplied ego trippers to be schooled in tourist promotion, and certified competent to lead groups of tourists less ego centric, and more dangerously timid.

In the future, we the people demand, government provided safety equipment and fencing around the rim of every volcano on earth, where tourists are likely to promote the bottom line for agencies geared to profit, and who contribute to government coffers through tax, ( with the exception of the better agencies with head office in the Cayman Islands, and CEO's on the same standing as Malcolm Turnbull, the expert in this field).

We demand a lift be installed from camp two, to the top of Mount Everest to facilitate wheel chairs access, and unisex toilets at agreeable intervals to accomodate tranvestites in an inclusive and meaningful way!

Dans underwater burial cremation service.com.au...world expert in Eco cremations
and Eco suicide assists.

Dan.

Act of God ?

You had me going there for a bit Dan, but then I saw the post was from a bloke who goes swimming with bull sharks.

Hasbeen

Since the drought, salt water has pushed eighty Klm upstream. Bull sharks would be above that mostly.
Whites predominant now in the ocean. Was shadowed by a white a few days back for ten minutes. It's become a habit. Often waiting at the anchor. Cruised mostly within a meter or so, until it faced off, which was unacceptable.

Dans cremations dot com...a volcanic experience!

What is it for government whether I live or die?

Oh please don't try to tell us that you "care" about me - only horses might believe you and it doesn't even make a funny joke!

Just wait till the suing starts & the ptss & all the stuff hangers-on come up with to profit from from other peoples' misery !

The last time anyone was killed on White Island was due to rock fall in 1914.

However, the tour operators should have taken note of the increased risk or at least have informed the tourists.

Yeah, the old chase for the tourist Dollar. It's already killed the GBR & now the tourists themselves are on the list !