Crisis situation: Do actions prove intention more than words?

What is a crisis?

The conception of a crisis has changed across the centuries. For instance, Mayas were revering the sun as a God, so any classical event nowadays scientifically well known, such as an eclipse, was appearing to them as the end of the world, thus a major crisis. However, the definition given in the textbook is wider: “a crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally (e.g. earthquake) or as a result of human error (e.g. Chernobyl), intervention (e.g. global warming), or even malicious intent (e.g. September 11). A crisis usually has significant actual or potential financial impact on a company, and it usually affects multiple constituencies in more than one market.”

Everyone knows the cute and fat version of the piggy bank toy…this is the crisis version!

What are the characteristics of a crisis?

First step: the element of surprise, in our case the disappearance of an Air France commercial flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew members. It was the deadliest commercial airliner accident since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in 2001. It was the first fatal accident involving an Airbus A330 while in passenger service.

Second step: insufficient information, Air France Company, Brazilian and French government were lacking of the crucial information: what really happened? How or why this could happen? Where the airplane really disappeared? Is there any chance that someone survived? What information should the company communicate?

Third step: the quick pace of events, obviously in our globalized world, where terrorism threats are constantly present, every time a fatal catastrophe happen, hoax and fear escalate very rapidly (As a personal example I remember that French newspapers were reporting during the next days that at the last minute a suspected terrorist was accepted on board…this information has never been confirmed, neither by a government, nor by the company, it is just to show how fantasy can over pass reality sometimes)

Fourth step: intense scrutiny, 33 nationalities were present on board, with no chance to survive for any person in the plane and consequently 228 deaths, obviously almost worldwide media were paying a huge attention on the company’s executives and CEO to explain how this could happen and why.

Crisis management:

This accident was unfortunately not the first for the almost century old company, such as the Concorde accident in Gonesse (France, where 113 people were killed in 2000), was one among others and also widely covered by the media. So, due to the nature of its activities, the company has an entire dormant organization capable of springing into action within seconds depending on the level of the alert. The company showed this as soon as the catastrophe was announced. They knew which constituencies to contact and which channel to use: look after relatives, who were gathered together and provided a psychological assistance and organize the flow of information to give to the media. At the same time, another support unit was convened to provide assistance to flight personnel and a free-toll number issued for anyone affected by the crash.

However, Air France is always referred as one of the safest airline companies. It would be interesting to see how many of the readers felt afraid of taking a plane after September 11, and how many of you would rather avoid flying on Air France airplanes after that?

Videos:

Oil crisis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV38JUMAjNc&feature=related

Enron’s bankruptcy consequences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxd9AeXft64&feature=related

For further examples, feel free to have a look to these miscellaneous blogs about Air France Company:

Blogs:

http://reputationspotlight.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/dealing-with-%E2%80%98patterns%E2%80%99-in-crisis-management/

“Are you a commercial firm selling safety to your stakeholders, or are you a safety firm selling a commercial product/service? Depending on your answer, your approach to crisis communications will be vastly different — and the impact on your brand and reputation will be damaged, preserved or enhanced as a result.”

http://blogs.gartner.com/roberta_witty/2009/06/03/crisis-management-is-about-managing-facts-and-emotions/

“Peter Goelz did a terrific job speaking about the Air France plane crash over the Atlantic. I caught him first on CNN and later on CBS. In both cases, he gave the reporter great sound bites and spoke about some complex issues in every day language - something a lot of people can't do.”

http://crisismanagementforum.com/topic/1738297/1/

http://af447.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2009/07/05/airbus-af-447-la-france-les-a-tues.html

Sources:

Summary of the catastrophe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woloBMkt8zo

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5055437n

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Air France crisis:

http://www.communication-sensible.com/download/Flight-AF-447-crisis-communications.pdf