Passengers recall getting 'pelted' and 'hammered' with lava on Hawaii tour boat
SF Gate
7/18/2018
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A Hawaiian tour boat experienced a glimpse of the rapture Monday after a lava "bomb" crashed through the roof of the vessel, injuring 23 of the boat's 52 passengers.
Tourists Will Bryan and Erin Walsh of Portland were aboard the ill-fated boat when a basketball-sized lava orb came hurling through the passenger cabin. The boat, operated by Lava Ocean Tours' Hot Spot, edged closer and closer to a lava flow pouring into the ocean, Bryan said in an interview with KRON4.
Bryan told the news station he was filming the lava with his cell phone when the lava bomb shot into the air and crashed through the roof, sending screaming passengers running for safety.
"You're just getting pelted," he said. "There's no safe spot on the boat. You're just getting hammered wherever you're at."
Walsh described crouching in the middle walkway aisle, "just covered in lava."
The boat captain, Shane Turpin, eventually coaxed the hot lava off the vessel and piloted the boat back to port around 7 a.m.
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Bryan and Walsh were among multiple passengers treated for injuries at local hospitals, including one woman whose femur was shattered during the incident. Bryan said he sustained a burn on his ankle, and Walsh had "a lot of debris in her eyes." Both had superficial scrapes.
In seemingly good humor, Bryan told KRON: "Most people say they went to Hawaii and saw a sunset. We go home and say we got attacked by lava."
The couple will return to Portland in a few days.
Hawaii tour boat operators plan to continue taking tourists to see lava from Kilauea volcano oozing into the ocean, but will follow the Coast Guard's revised policy prohibiting vessels from getting closer than 984 feet to the flow. Boat operators had previously been allowed to get up to 164 feet away from the molten rock with a special license, privileges the Coast Guard revoked Monday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
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