Who Is to Blame When Things Go Wrong on the Slopes of an Active Volcano?
The question in the title of this article has been asked of the Indonesian authorities following the tragic death of 26-year-old Brazilian hiker Juliana Marins last month.
Marins had been hiking Mount Rinjani, Indonesia's second-highest volcano, when she fell in the early hours of the morning on June 21. The volcano is very popular with travelers who flock to the island of Lombok, where it is located, to trek to the summit and admire the sunrise views and stunning Indonesian vistas.
Horrifyingly, the aftermath of the fall was captured by passing hikers, who flew a drone down to where she was located around 200 meters down the mountainside and shot footage of her sitting in distress, appearing disoriented and injured. They had apparently heard her screaming for help and using her flashlight to try and attract attention.
Quite how she ended up there has been the subject of much scrutiny, although it appears that she became tired after hiking for several days and decided to separate from her guide and the rest of her hiking group. They chose to press on to the summit without her, and at some point while she was alone on the mountainside, she fell into a ravine.
Opinions about what should have happened next vary.
Marins' family felt that she should have been rescued immediately, although the Indonesian authorities maintain that they descended to 200 meters, where she was last seen on drone footage, but could no longer locate her.
Most likely, she either tried to climb up or down the mountain to find help, and fell or slipped further to around 600 meters, where she was found deceased due to injuries sustained from the second fall.
It took the Indonesian authorities four days to find and evacuate Marins, outside of the 72-hour window that rescuers aim for, and after which survival rates drop dramatically. This was due to the fact that the weather on Rinjani kept changing rapidly, and this, coupled with limited visibility, made it challenging for rescuers to attempt a vertical rescue down the mountainside using ropes or to reach Marins by helicopter.
Understandably, Marins' family back in Brazil were highly critical of the rescue operation and accused the Indonesian authorities of incompetence. However, it takes around a day to hike to the place where Marins fell and, once authorities discovered that she had fallen further than predicted, from 200 meters to 600 meters, additional equipment was needed to reach her, which had to be brought up the mountain from base camp.
There were also three helicopters on standby, but none of them could reach Marins due to the terrain and rolling fog.
When things go wrong in Indonesia, it is worth remembering that they often go wrong in places far from help, amid inclement conditions and with extreme terrain, and rescuers regularly risk their lives to save others.
In May, a Malaysian hiker also died on the mountain after falling into a ravine on Rinjani, and there have been a number of reports of hikers slipping, breaking bones, and needing to be rescued in recent months.
To understand just some of the challenges, the point nearest the summit of Rinjani, which sits at 3,726 meters above sea level, is made up of sand and loose rocks, meaning that hikers sink into the terrain and slip backwards as they try to reach the summit. The final push to the peak takes travelers along narrow trails with sheer drops on each side, like the one Marins fell down.
It is also worth bearing in mind that Rinjani is an 'active' volcano and, in 1994, an eruption triggered a deadly volcanic mudflow which killed 31 people.
Local guides have long spoken of the dangers and the need to be physically fit before attempting to summit the mountain, yet still there persists a school of thought that trekking on Mount Rinjani is not an extreme sport.
According to an Indonesian autopsy, Marins died of blunt force trauma, likely from hitting rocks as she fell from 200 to 600 meters, and would have died within about 20 minutes. There were no indications of hypothermia or other issues like dehydration.
However, this has reportedly not prevented her family from threatening to file a lawsuit in conjunction with a Brazilian non-governmental organization, alleging negligence on the part of the Indonesian authorities for not rescuing Marins sooner.
The issue was even discussed on the sidelines of the BRICS High-Level Conference in Rio de Janeiro, which took place during July 6-7, with the Indonesian side insisting that Indonesia and Brazil continue to maintain 'good relations' despite the threats of legal action from the Marins family.
It also prompted a response from Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who responded to reports that the Marins family wanted to sue the Indonesian government through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by saying that this would be impossible as Indonesia is not a forum member.
Instead, the Indonesian authorities have suggested a joint investigation into Marins's death in conjunction with Brazil, which seems a far more appropriate and even-handed response to the tragedy.
This untimely death of a young woman on the trip of a lifetime across Southeast Asia is deeply sad, but trying to apportion blame in a situation where rescuers battled for four days amid treacherous terrain and extreme temperatures to evacuate her is perhaps not the best course of action. It is also perhaps not wise for this to devolve into an international spat between Indonesia and Brazil.
Sometimes an accident is just that – an accident – and one that occurred in a hostile environment on the side of an active volcano where presumably everyone was cognizant of the risks.
In such a situation where people engage in extreme sports in remote areas, is there really anyone to blame if things go wrong?
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