06-11-2017, 08:15 AM
I used to fly the fixed wing tours out there in the Safari Aviation Maule (a small fixed wing airplane they offered when they couldn't fill their helicopter with the minimum to make a profit). I was out there flying with a Japanese couple a decade or so ago, and by sheer coincidence we were there at the moment the lava "bench" that forms at the shoreline lava entry collapsed and slid into the ocean. I believe I mentioned this experience here previously. When the "bench" began to break away and started to slide down (the apparently quite steep) rubble submarine slope, we could plainly see that its core, where it was breaking away at the base of the cliff, was still glowing red hot. There was a spectacular explosive reaction when seawater rushed into the expanding fracture below the cliff as the bench slid down the slope into the sea. Solid and molten rock flew up perhaps a hundred or so feet when the water rushed into the fracture and came into contact with the still molten core of the bench as it broke away.
When I see TV footage of these tour boats, they often seem way too close in light of what I saw that day, and well within the danger zone that exists during the moments the bench separates. It apparently does so routinely, I can remember arriving out there several times to see that the bench which had been visible on previous flights was gone, I just happened to be flying out there once with that Japanese couple to see the explosive event actually in progress. As I recall, one couple hiking on the shoreline that ventured too close in that era was found after a presumably similar event. They were both killed, and may have suffered a very painful death.
When I see TV footage of these tour boats, they often seem way too close in light of what I saw that day, and well within the danger zone that exists during the moments the bench separates. It apparently does so routinely, I can remember arriving out there several times to see that the bench which had been visible on previous flights was gone, I just happened to be flying out there once with that Japanese couple to see the explosive event actually in progress. As I recall, one couple hiking on the shoreline that ventured too close in that era was found after a presumably similar event. They were both killed, and may have suffered a very painful death.