Within moments of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York last Monday, the airline's communications staff were in action. Not only did the team face the tragic
circumstances surrounding any deadly crash, but they also had to tackle the immediate suspicion among the media and the public that terrorist activity could be the culprit.
PR NEWS spoke with Tim Doke, VP of corporate communications for American Airlines, on Nov. 14 to get an inside look at what is being heralded by the public relations industry
as a masterful crisis response. Doke, a 25-year PR veteran, came to American from Brinker International in 1992 and has been in his current role since 1998. He is leading a team
of 35 ("about a tenth of what I need in this situation") along with employees from other American departments and outside support from Weber Shandwick and Burson-Marsteller to
manage a tragic - and unprecedented - situation at American and in the airline industry in general.
PRN: What did you and your team do in the immediate aftermath of the
crash of flight 587?
Doke: Obviously we have a very detailed crisis readiness plan. The purpose
of having the manual is to follow it - we try to not think too much on the fly
during a crisis situation and instead to use the tools we've created during
times when we can think clearly.
The first thing the team does [in the wake of a disaster] is assemble. I go with the chairman to our crisis communications center where all relevant departments in the company
are represented: our reservations folks who locked in the passenger name list on the flight involved, dispatch people involved in the operation of the flight, the flight
department that can give us information about the crew, maintenance, flight service people. We all assembled and used it as an opportunity to assess the facts and get as much
information together as quickly as we could.
PRN: Your priority, of course, is to care for the families and your
employees, but dealing with the media is also critical in this situation. What
was your strategy?
Doke: Our philosophy is to quickly establish the company as the authoritative
source about the crisis. Part of the process involves getting the CEO actively
engaged in communications activities. In this instance [Chairman] Don Carty
was in front of the media within 2 hours of the crash. It was very important
for Don [Carty] to make himself available to the media, to get to New York and
be visible.
We did a series of news releases with basic facts about the flight. We helped fill the information vacuum that's created with lots of rumor and speculation and not many
facts.
PRN: In this instance, fighting rumors and speculation was more important
than ever given that many reporters - and Americans in general - immediately
leapt to the conclusion that this was another terrorist attack. How did you
handle that concern?
Doke: That's a really tricky line for us to walk. We're under tight
constraints from the National Transportation Safety Board, and we are confined
to providing information we could have provided the day before the crash - information
on the aircraft, the crew, maintenance of the plane. Having said that, there
were rampant rumors and hysteria in the media. In the instances where we saw
reporters by virtue of their questioning heading into inaccurate and misleading
territory, we went off the record and on background. We provided insight that
steered them back to the rational course.
The critical challenge to this investigation is to contain rumors. It's not terribly helpful, frankly, that the NTSB does two to three briefings a day where they release bits
of information that tend to fuel speculation and rumors. If they asked us - and they haven't - we'd suggest a better communications approach would be to announce what will be
investigated and announce conclusions two or three weeks after, not dribble out what was on the cockpit voice recorder or whether bird feathers were found or rattles were
heard.
PRN: This has been a terrible few months for your employees. How is
American Airlines dealing with internal communications right now?
Doke: Airline people are a very close-knit group. In addition to the
passengers, there were nine crew, three additional American employees and three
family members of employees on board. Probably our most critical audience during
a period like this is our employees. Don Carty [CEO] in New York spent more
time comforting and interacting with our employees than he spent either with
family members or public officials involved.
These are employees who know each other very well. Plus, they are naturally very worried about the state of the company. When the chairman takes several hours and sits down in
breakrooms and crew lounges, and walks them through everything we know and reassures them about the financial strength of the company, that has a major impact.
PRN: You mention employees' concern about the long-term viability of
the organization. How will you communicate about that moving forward, given
the sensitivity required in dealing with the impact of the terrorist attacks
and this crash?
Doke: The financial community understands the strength of American Airlines
very well, and through our investor relations department, we keep them very
closely attuned to the condition of the company. We rely heavily on third parties
to make that case; they are more credible than we are standing up and saying
those things. And we don't think it's appropriate to go out and do a lot of
proactive communications about our financial situation because it would come
off as very heartless and an inappropriate focus of the company.
(Contact: Tim Doke, 817/967-3540)
Judging American
Crisis management experts are calling American's efforts a communications coup ... but according to some, there's always room for improvement. Here's what a few of PRN's
columnists and advisors had to say:
Katie Paine, president, DelahayeMedialink
"I thought they did a pretty good job at the press conference, given that the NTSB was obviously in control. They did it by the book, but as a skeptical PR person, that was the
problem I had with it. It was absolutely by the book, and so I didn't really sense any true compassion - more just saying the things they were expected to say." ([email protected])
Edward Segal, author, Getting Your 15 Minutes of Fame
"I'd give American Airlines very high marks on how they responded. They did an excellent job getting the word out immediately, communicating regularly, and they're refusing to
speculate or cast blame. They're not responding to rumors. The worst thing to do would be to speculate - you have to work on facts, not rumor and fantasy." (http://www.publicrelations.com)
Jim Lukaszewski, principal, The Lukaszewski Group
"What matters is the families. Their lives have been changed dramatically, and nothing a reporter will report will save a life. [The airline] should be talking to the families
as they are - to the exclusion of the media. American is an expert at handling situations like this." ([email protected])