Authorities on Hawaii’s Big Island have recovered the body of a 75-year-old man who is believed to have fallen from a closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes national park, where visitors in past months have been trying to get a glimpse of a glowing lava lake from an eruption of the Kilauea volcano.
Family members had reported the man missing from the park early on Monday, the National Park Service said. Officials believe the accident occurred late on Sunday evening.
Park rangers and firefighters had searched through the night to locate the missing man, and eventually recovered his body 100ft (30.48m) below the crater rim of the Uēkahuna viewing area at the summit of the Kilauea volcano.
An investigation is under way, officials said in a statement, and identification of the man is “pending further notification of family”.
Thousands of people have visited the park at night to view the glowing lava lake since the volcano began erupting in September. The eruption, Hawaii News Now reported, “[sent] up fiery fountains as high as 100 feet and [flooded] the floor of Halemaumau Crater with lava”.
A 32-year-old army soldier was seriously injured in May 2019 after falling from a 300ft cliff into the crater while trying to get a better view of Kīlauea, NPR reported.
