Airline Crisis Management

[MrKnight]

In light of the recent tragedies involving the Malasyia Airlines crashes, I can only imagine how complex and traumatic of an expereince and process it must be to deal with such a crisis. I am curious as to how an airline goes about dealing with such a crisis, perhaps some industry experts can weigh in with some insight. Here are some points I have always been curious about:

- How does the airline inform families of victims that an accident has occured? Who handles this and how do they go about contacting these families?
- How does the airline airport staff handle people at the destination airport as the news breaks realtime on TV media?
- I have noticed some airlines issue statements that they are dispatching a "Crisis Team" .. What does this entail and who is part of this team? Where does this team go?

Looking forward to all the insightfull responses..

[flyonpa]

1. Most of the families find out thru the news media, Airlines have all ready defined 800 number that they publish and start to build a list of family member who call in.

2. The Arrival board go to "See Agent" They move the families to somewhere private, Often a hotel near the airport, or a conference center @ the airport.

3. As part of the airline plans (and their partners ie: One World, Star Alliance) have trained Staff, they dispatch normally in a charter planes from the airline main base (or From around there network) , to the Start Point for the flight, End Point, and Crash Site.

[flyonpa]

Example: When the Asiana B777 Crashed at SFO, United Send there Team. Asiana has a very small staff in SFO, UAL has a huge trained staff. Ready to go, Also UAL has large staff @ SFO that can start to set things into motion, while the rest of the Team arrives.