One year on from White Island

ONE YEAR ON When disaster strikes DJIATF is just a call away

By Judith Martin

A photograph of two yellow-suited soldiers in a sea of murky grey ash is a grim reminder of the White Island tragedy for Lieutenant Colonel Michael Nochete.

The soldiers are Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operators walking through ash to recover six people who perished on the island following the eruption.

LTCOL Nochete, who was the on-scene commander for the recovery operation, admits to feeling anxious during the thick of the White Island eruption tragedy.

And it wasn’t just because he was an Army officer on a Navy vessel.

“It was the first time in my career I had knowingly and consciously placed personnel under my command in harm’s way without me standing there with them. To be frank, it was an uncomfortable feeling.”

LTCOL Nochete is referring to the decision he recommended, based on the advice of experts, to send six members of the EOD team to recover the bodies of those killed when Whakaari/White Island erupted on December 9 last year. The official death toll from the eruption was 22 people, 19 of whom died in New Zealand and three in Australia. Two bodies were not recovered and have been listed as deceased by the Chief Coroner.

LTCOL Nochete is the Chief of Staff of HQ DJIATF and worked with other agencies to lead the NZDF effort supporting the New Zealand Police-led recovery operation.

“The lead GNS volcanologist was predicting a 40 to 60 percent chance of another eruption. The go – no go criteria was that there needed to remain a less than six percent chance, or less, of death if an eruption was to occur in the three hour window the EOD team was on the island. We had strategies in place to mitigate the risks but the operation was not without risk.”

The EOD team leader who went onto Whakaari/White Island was someone he had known his entire career. “I know his wife too. The what-ifs keep playing through your mind.”

LTCOL Nochete worked mostly from HMNZS Wellington which was operating just off Whakaari/White Island to ensure good visibility and communications throughout the operation.

“I was lucky enough to have my DJ5 Plans Officer, Lieutenant Commander Brad King, RNZN, on the ship with me. He was monitoring the synchronisation matrix so could tell me if we were tracking well, and if there were deviations from the plan we were able to make decisions or calls on it.”

When HQ DJIATF first became involved in the operation LTCOL Nochete was more of a conduit among the other organisations involved. That eventually narrowed down and he focussed on recovery operations. On HMNZS Wellington he worked with the volcanologist and the police tracking the operation.

The military has a strata of people specialising in emergency response.

“We’d identified quite early that the environmental conditions meant we would need people trained in using long duration, closed circuit breathing apparatus to recover the people who had died on White Island. They also had to be experienced in operating under stress. That’s why the EOD team was the best for the job.”

It was a truly joint operation. “The Air and Navy crews knew what they had to do, as did the EOD team and medical personnel.

“The relief was palpable when we achieved what we had set out to do.”

Would he do anything differently?

“It was a very uncertain and complex environment, and looking back there is not a lot I think we could have done differently at the tactical level. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good response in a bad situation.

“There’s a procedural planning process we follow in the military and the depth of training we do helps us adapt the process as required. Even in a very complex and ambiguous environment we use the joint military appreciation process as a handrail to get to a plan. We can then adapt the plan based on time and context.

“There is always time later to reflect on what could have been done better because continuous improvement is something we always focus on.” The Deployable Joint InterAgency Task Force provides operational command and control for joint, interagency and multi-national operations that contribute to the security of New Zealand and its interests.

It was established in 2011, and replaces what was largely an ad-hoc group of elements that would deploy for an event or activity. Its aim is to respond quickly with practised procedures and staff that can operate in complex environments at short notice.

Until recently it was providing command and control for Operation Protect, the NZDF’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. That function has now been handed over to a new JTF HQ to enable DJIATF to prepare for the possibility of humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations that may happen in New Zealand and the Pacific over the high risk weather season.