Page 77 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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5 58 Crisis Communication

the accident site where families may have congregated and the
media certainly will have gathered. It also denies the reality of
today’s 24/7 media environment and the desire on the part of
the media to ‘get’ what is a dramatic, and at the same time, very
tragic human interest story.
The other reality is that there will be media at the site of an
incident or accident and they will expect to get information from
or about the company. There will also be media at the origi-
nating destination and at the final destination, no matter where
the accident may have occurred. If the company is unable to
provide information, the media will get it from other sources
who might have been affected by the accident; might have wit-
nessed it; or who might have special, and not always unbiased,
interest in the accident.
In addition, if an accident happens in a country with a dif-
ferent language or markedly different culture, the best head-
quarters’ communication expert will quickly find him or herself
out of their depth. And how the media covers an accident is
directly proportional to the impact of the accident in that market
in terms of its citizens injured or lost.
On the financial front, the fact is that regular training does
cost money and the world’s airlines have lost billions of dollars
in this century. Traditional or legacy carriers have seen increased
competition from low-cost carriers and all airlines have been hit
by skyrocketing fuel costs.
Some airlines have found alternative ways of protecting their
reputation during an accident by using a code-share or airline
alliance partner communication team, hiring a ‘local’ public
relations agency on a limited basis or using their emergency
response management partner’s communication resources.
These alternatives are not always ideal as they delegate the repu-
tation of the company to another source, but they have proven
surprisingly effective in supporting the airline’s communication
resources. Star Alliance is an example of this: it has a crisis
manual in place and assigns member airlines to assist in acci-
dents in specific parts of the world.
A former senior airline industry executive used to argue that
when you say your company is ‘different’, you stop learning
from other companies. If this is so, what can other companies
learn from the experience of airlines?
Despite the best planning, incidents and accident do happen
and they don’t always happen at a convenient time or in a con-