Malaysia flight 370: A case study of the crisis from a public relations practitioner perspective

Malaysia flight 370:

A case study of the crisis from a public relations practitioner perspective

INTRODUCTION

Forecasting is the act of predicting what may happen in the future. Although the forecast can be wrong, therefore it is always a good idea to have a plan for what may be coming. Crisis management plans are created within many organizations to prevent a crisis from actually occurring. However, if the plan fails and the event turns into a crisis this is when public relations steps in. This is an important aspect to the crisis management plan because when the crisis hits and there are many comments on social networking it can be hard to get the organization back to what it used to be. Using William Benoit’s Apologia Strategies can be affective to the public if used in the right sense along with the language expectancy theory. This paper continues to examine newscopy associated with the disappearance of Malaysian Air Flight 370. Along with the research of flight 370, the paper develops specific references for practitioners managing similar events to avoid circumstance like these.

RESEARCH

In the past fifty years there have been several fatal accidents that have turned into crisis with numerous different airline companies. Flying has become a major way of transportation in the past years. With thousands of airlines located all around the world it makes for a much faster way for people to get to their destination. With millions of people boarding flights each day on different flights the planes have to be ready and running smoothly. One of the first steps to a crisis communication plan is to assess the crisis type and with aircraft there could be endless possibilities of crisis type. The article “The Hazards of Takeoff” mentions over thirteen crises that can occur during takeoff alone. Although takeoff can have multiple problems it is not the only type of crisis an airline can forecast. Airlines need to be cautious of air accidents, hijackings, damage, or military action, “Day by day, air travel is getting safer, but when things go wrong it is at a high cost” (Air Disaster, n.d). Three months ago on March 8th, the Malaysian Airline flight 370 went completely off radar and has been missing ever since. 239 passengers on that flight to Beijing are nowhere to be found, with only guesses of where the plane might be. CBS news reports that “the Australian agency responsible for the Indian Ocean search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 reiterated its belief Thursday that the missing Boeing 777 would be found in the southern Indian Ocean” (Pegues & Reals, 2014). Many people around the world are questioning and coming up with scenarios of what could have happened to the plane that has completely disappeared.

Theories are being tossed around about what may have happened to flight 370 such as conspiracies, pilot suicide, catastrophic killing spree making the plane crash, and even the humorous theory of an alien takeover. Though all of these possibilities could be true, there is the question of why, why did someone do this or why did the tracker break mid-flight. Minds are wandering and many are trying to solve the mystery. Flight 370 hasn’t been the only mystery airlines have come into contact with though.

Unfortunately this was not the first time a plane has gone completely missing. International Business Times dates back to 1938 up to 2014 on missing planes. Back in 1938 it does not seem as confusing as to why planes took off and then never came back or could ever be found. In today’s world though with technology becoming bigger and better every day is when confusion sinks in and shocks many that planes are still missing after many years or months of searching. (Mahapatra, 2014). Researching disappearance of planes has led back to the Air Flight France 477 that happened in 2009. According to CNN In 2009 Air Flight France 477 had gone missing and wasn’t found until two years later (Watkins, Perez, Mohsin, Lumpur, Marsh, Prokupecz, et al., 2014).

With just a few years apart from both the plane disappearances, new technology is on the rise for a better tracker system. However, with not knowing what had really happened to the tracker it will be hard for airlines to throw away millions of dollars for a tracker that still does the job. Though it is still a mystery to everyone on where the plane is so the search is moving forward with many people giving their time, money and support to find flight 370.

On July 6, 2014 ABC News issued that more equipment is being sent to the Indian Ocean to help continue the search. The device being sent is used to map the ocean floor in search for pieces of the missing aircraft. The new search will being in August with an estimate of a year to find anything. (ABC News, 2014). The cost continues to increase with no sign of the plane. Malaysian Airlines cannot give up the search for flight 370; otherwise it will only make their organizations reputation even more negative than it already is.

PLANNING

Keeping this a secret and out of the public’s eye was not an option for Malaysian Airlines. This was a crisis that had people talking the moment it occurred. Apologia has been traced back in history with similar meanings the most recent states “when offenders offer apologiae, they are not seeking to earn forgiveness but rather to avoid punishment and damage to their reputation” (What is Apologia, 2009). This theory is also much like image restoration theory that has evolved from apologia.

William Benoit is the theorist who came up with five strategies that many organizations take to get out of the media. The first strategy being denial stating that the problem did not occur because of their doing. Evasion of Responsibility is next explained that the situation was simply an accident, while avoiding the entire negative aspect of the accident. The third strategy is reducing the offensiveness, stating all of the positives from the incident and comparing to similar situations. Corrective action comes next this is described as doing the right thing and repairing the damage that has been done. The last strategy on Benoit’s list is Mortification admitting that the organization was in the wrong and had clearly slipped up (Benoit, 1997).

Another theory that can be associated with this crisis is the language expectancy theory developed by Jones and Stewart Burgoon. The theory was created due to the different expectations many have when it comes to speaking to other individuals “Theory views that the anticipated communication behavior is grounded in the psychological and cultural norms of the society” (LET, n.d). While looking at both the apologia method and the language expectancy theory both bond together. It is important for those who are designated to be the spokesperson for the media and other communication that needs to be heard to pick the best apologia strategy and develop the best way to announce the news.

Objectives

• Use strategies from the apologia theory to gain a positive organization reputation. As well as look at the language expectancy theory to discover the best communications approach.

• Manage to finance the crisis.

Strategy

• Assessing crisis type- how did this happen, and how can it be avoided in the future. Preparing for the unexpected.

• Establishing early contact between family members and friends. Informing them of any current information that is conducted about flight 370 while listening to feedback and answering questions as best as possible.

• Forming relationships and building trust with customers to assure that this does not happen often.

• Prepare for financial issues that may occur when searching for the plane while supplying the necessary equipment.

Target Audience

• Malaysian Airlines customers.

• Stakeholders involved with Malaysian Airlines.

• Malaysian Airlines staff.

• Media and public.

• Families and friends on flight 370.

EXECUTION

Assessing the Malaysian airlines and the type of crisis that is at hands is difficult. With little to no information about what really happened to flight 370 there is one piece of information that has been confirmed. BBC news Asia reported a few months after the disappearance that seconds before the plane went off radar someone spoke these words “"Good night Malaysian three seven zero" (BBC News, 2014). Some may portray the crisis type to be a technical error, explained by coombs a technical error accident is when “technology utilized or supplied by the organization fails and causes an industrial accident” or people may believe that it was a human error accident “when human error causes an accident” (Coombs, 2012). Assessing the type for the airlines situation is difficult when the problem is still not fully understood. However, the airlines took action in trying to make right, right away.

The Monday following the disappearance of the plane March 10th, families of passengers on the plane received a text message that specified, “We have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived” (ABC News, 2014). This was the airlines way of corrective action. However, the airline received many negative comments for the process they felt best when reaching out to the families as Kolodny reports “The text message immediately set off a firestorm, with many on the Internet quick to criticize the airliner for not reaching out to relatives by more appropriate means” (Kolodny, 2014).

To achieve appropriate and affective communication with the families throughout the process of the search, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told the families that they “are advised to receive information updates on the progress of the search and investigation and other support by Malaysia Airlines within the comfort of their own homes, with the support and care of their families and friends" (NBC News, 2014). Reports on the other hand show how families have responded to their “information updates” “MH370 families have chided Malaysia Airlines, as well as Malaysian government authorities, in part because the news media has continuously received new information about the missing plane before the families”(Kolodny, 2014). The airline made a courageous move in giving the family $5,000 in financial aid and offered the families another $50,000. Most families did not accept this offer due to the many tricks that could be involved with that amount of money (Makinen, 2014).

Though the Malaysian Airlines believed that this compensation would delete all their problems within the media and with the families they were wrong. The type of language the airline was trying to achieve did not work well with the families or the media. Language expectancy theory is said to be derived from three main factors: communicator, relationship, and context of the situation. (LET, n.d). The fact of the matter was that the plane is still missing with a little lead on where the plane might be. On the other hand, with the many people who have been helping with the search and the multiple countries assisting the search party there is a possibility for the search to be seized. The United States alone has sent in military, navy and other forces to help look for signs of the plane. Within this process the U.S helped fund the search with $2.5 million. This is a large amount of money that the U.S will never get back (Martinez, 2014). The airline itself however expresses “This is truly an international effort and the search is a powerful example of international co-operation” Malaysian Airlines is extremely thankful for the dozens of countries who have helped in this tragic time. (Malaysian Airlines, 2014). The amount of time and money spent towards this missing plane is unbelievable, and one can only hope that the plane will soon be found.

While the search was on and money being poured from every direction to help gain new technology to better the search, the airline however was losing more than they ever had. The Malaysian Airlines chief executive shared that “ticket sales have suffered after Flight 370”. Even before this incident Malaysian Airlines had been in a financial rut, but it is certainly taking a toll on the organization now (Raguvanshi & NG, 2014).

Today, the plane is still missing, making it almost one hundred days since the plane was last tracked. As the media is still on top of this case and the search is still in place the Airline is doing their best to be dedicated to the families of loved ones who had been on Flight 370 and to figuring out answers. As well as the many crisis management lessons to learn from this most recent case analysis Malaysian Airline 370.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Coombs describes the three stage approach which includes: precrisis, crisis, and post crisis. This approach is a significant outline for any crisis management plan. As each stage plays an important role the precrisis stage is the most important. During this stage it gives the organization time to lessen or even avoid crisis from even happening. The second stage, is a trigger that turns an event into a crisis. The automatic trigger for this crisis was once whoever spoke “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”. Crisis does unfortunately happen as Boin and Hart explain a crisis is “unexpected, undesirable, unimaginable, and often unmanageable situations” (Boin & Hart, 2007).

Malaysian Airlines did the best they could with the situation that was at hand but there are some alternatives that could have made the crisis seem better. The book Strategic Communication in Crisis Management Lessons from the Airline Industry by Sally Ray explains the precrisis in an airline industry is when “Safety is achieved only when all elements of the aviation system cooperate and accomplish their responsibilities” (Ray, 1999). Practice makes perfect and is one way to avoid a crisis. Practicing each safety rule and regulation and responsibilities each person has until the plan is embedded into each individual. Going over the plan and performing it is a crucial step for any communication plan because many people learn better when actually going through the process. One can only hope that these steps are taken in airlines around the world but it is so significant that it should be a continuous reminder.

Another alternative that could take place within the crisis of flight 370 would be the different approach to the families of those who lost a loved one on the plane. In this case the apologia theory is a great method that shows the five steps of apologizing. (Benoit, 1997). Created by William Benoit the theory has better options for different situations. Although the airline was trying to maintain the once “good” reputation that they obtained it was not very sincerer. Putting the language expectancy theory into perspective, it would have been more helpful for the airline to understand that this is going to be a hard concept for families to grasp that a loved one has been in a deathly accident. The situation is not a norm and does not happen often but when it does there are better approaches than a text message.

Airlines all around the world have had crisis happen, some big some small, the question is, when will they figure out the right plan. Unfortunately for the Malaysia flight and other flights in the past who have never found a disappearing plane the financial benefits of the organization will slowly decrease. While creating a three stage approach to crisis it can allow those to create and better plan and to learn from prior accidents. Precrisis, crisis, and post crisis are just three phases that an organization can follow when dealing with a crisis.

EVALUATION

The effects this plane had on so many people is incredible. The families, airline, and other countries have been so involved in an ongoing process to find Flight 370. With hardly any signs and money being lost with this search it is hard to keep going. There are many goals trying to be reached within this particular crisis:

Goal 1: Continue to feed information and communicate with the families who have been in grief about the accident.

Goal 2: New technology, for not only the search but for trackers in the aircrafts as the “MH370's disappearance isn't the first time that modern plane-tracking systems have been called into question” (Chang, 2014).

Goal 3: Be as positive about the situation as possible and answer any rising questions the community may have.

Goal 4: Create a new market for Malaysian Airlines; therefore the organization can bounce back to regular customer flow.

Goal 5: Learn more about the problem so it will never happen again, and create a better plan so a situation like this occurs again.

CONCLUSION

Malaysian flight 370 has gone through a lot in the last one hundred days, with ups and downs from media, customers, and loved ones who are dealing with grief. The airline did what they could and felt it was best to use corrective action when it came to the apologia theory. This allowed the airline to “pay back” those who lost someone in the accident. Many became very angry and felt the message that the families received was insincere, making Malaysian Airlines reputation very negative at that time. There are infinite ways the apologia theory can be used with the five different strategies Benoit provides. Language expectancy theory describes how communication organizations connect with individuals and communicate.

The flight is still a mystery that nothing has been found, but with the many helping hands and equipment being built the process should be speeding up. As Malaysian Airlines have many goals for the future it will only help not only this crisis but the many other airplane crisis that may occur later on. Forecasting is the act of predicting what may happen so it is significant for organizations to create a crisis communication plan for the actions that are not predicted. Lessons are learned all over the world when crisis strikes like flight 370 did. With the three phases that Coombs explains, precrisis, crisis, and post crisis it gives people a better understanding of what is going on.

As many hope that this will never happen again, there is the positivity that there are so many people helping in this tragic moment. On March 8th the Malaysian Airlines crisis occurred, and has been an ongoing crisis that is still unresolved.

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