How Air India CEO crisis response exposed a communication secret 

Dr Tony Jaques dissects the near-identical responses of airline CEOs after fatal crashes, warning that over-reliance on legal templates and media training may be eroding trust in corporate crisis communication.


Image by Freepik.

When two airline CEOs gave almost identical responses to fatal aircraft crashes, the obvious question is: What does that say about the sincerity of the message, and are template crisis statements undermining CEO reputations?

In the wake of this month’s Air India plane crash near Ahmedabad, India, which killed 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground, CEO Campbell Wilson released a video in which he referred to the disaster as a ‘serious incident.’

In a message which reeked of corporate speak and lawyerly language, the CEO looked similar to an automaton reading an autocue rather than the leader of a massive organisation reeling from a shocking loss of life. He said: “I would like to express our deep sorrow about this event,” adding: “This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India.” Nowhere did he express his personal sympathy or convey human empathy for the people affected.

While he seemed to have been media trained to within an inch of his life, his wooden video message exposed a much more worrying feature. Much of it duplicated a video message from the CEO of American Airlines after one of its aircraft collided with a military helicopter near Washington DC, USA, five months earlier, killing 67 people.

Certainly, the video performance of American Airlines CEO Robert Isom was somewhat more animated and human, but the message was almost exactly the same. Indeed, one online commentary ran the text of the two statements side by side, highlighting the extensive similarities, and concluded: “Barring specific details about the plane and location, most of the statement is identical, word-for-word and sometimes sentence-for-sentence.”

Although this commentator asserted plagiarism, the reality is that both airlines appeared to be following a sample statement produced by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which has published crisis communication templates for use by airlines around the world.

The IATA manual provides very detailed advice and instruction on what to say and includes fill-in-the-gap templates – what they call ‘sample social media posts and crisis statements’ – one of which was very closely followed by both American Airlines and Air India.

Being prepared in advance is one of the core foundations of effective crisis management, and that includes communication planning. However, that is very different from slavishly following a pre-prepared template, evidently developed by lawyers to minimise risk.

When there is a major air disaster, investigations and litigation are sure to follow, and a genuine human response from the CEO won’t in any way increase legal risk or liability. As the late Washington DC legal-crisis expert Richard Levick wrote: “A lawyerly press release or public statement is often as dangerous as no statement at all. Legal language, so vital and appropriate in the courtroom or in contract negotiations, won’t help you win cases in the court of public opinion during a crisis.”

Nevertheless, IATA and some companies still cling to stilted legalistic language rather than speaking from the heart to people suffering terrible loss and seeking comfort. The author of the online commentary about this debacle said: “The one job of a CEO in such situations is to sound sincere.” He got that wrong. The job of the CEO is actually to be sincere.

In 2014, when an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea on a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard, Tony Fernandes, the multi-millionaire owner of the airline, stepped forward, saying: “I am the leader of this company, and I have to take responsibility. That is why I am here. I am not running away from my obligations. Even though we don't know what's wrong, the passengers were on my aircraft, and I have to take responsibility for that.”

Perhaps IATA and CEOs everywhere can take a lesson from his candour and humanity.