Wednesday 20 February 2013

THE CRISIS LESSONS FROM A HIJACK ATTEMPT AT TIANJIN AIRLINES



Passengers fastened their seatbelts on an internal Tianjin Airlines flight at Hotan Airport in the far west of China at lunchtime on 29 June last year.  They had no idea they were minutes away from a mid-air drama with an attempted hijacking which would leave two hijackers mortally wounded and passengers and crew injured.

As the Embraer190 aircraft, with 101 passengers and crew on board, climbed to cruising altitude, six passengers - three at the rear of the cabin and three at the front - stood up and announced their intention to take control of the plane. The crutches brought on board by one of the men were split up to be used to try to break the cockpit door open.  One reportedly held a bottle in his hand with a fuse.

The hijackers didn’t expect the degree of resistance they met from an energetic crew, quick-thinking passengers and two policemen who were on board - the six were pinned to the floor, two of them sustaining injuries so serious that they died a short while later.

22 minutes after take-off, the Embraer landed safely back at Hotan, with police waiting to storm the plane - with little more to do than arrest the hijackers who were reported to be Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic ethnic minority in this area beset by racial tension.

Within minutes of landing what has become a familiar routine in the West hit the Chinese version of Twitter, Sina Weibo.  Pictures of the hijackers being restrained on board were posted to a potential 300 million users.  They had been taken by another passenger on a cellphone.

The authorities may have been caught by surprise, but news agencies such as Reuters reported that agencies such as the police were not even picking up the phone to respond to the media.  It was some time before the local authorities (this is a long way from Beijing) and the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority began to make statements.  Once Beijing became aware of the seriousness of what had happened, definitive statements followed.

This allowed speculation to develop, and in the absence of any official statements, agencies carried a statement from the German based World Uighur Congress, who said that the incident had not been a hijacking but a dispute on board about seating arrangements which got out of control, and that they suspected China would use it as an excuse for a “crackdown” in the region.  Given that the Congress spokesman at this stage could not possibly have known what had happened on board, this statement lacked credibility, but in the information vacuum was reported unquestioningly.

The Chinese authorities felt a sense of enormous relief that the attempt had been unsuccessful, perhaps fearing the global damage this could have done for the country’s reputation for safety in the economically important and expanding aviation market.

The authorities showered gifts of large amounts of cash, cars and even apartments on the crew, the police and the passengers who overpowered the hijackers.  This was followed by honours for the police and additional rewards from Tianjin Airlines.

This may have been well intentioned, but the generosity raised questions amongst Chinese people.  Some felt it left no room for a debate on whether the deaths on board were nothing more than the result of “frontier justice” (although there is little if any sympathy for the hijackers to be found) and may have been an attempt to deflect attention over whether the incident was the result of failures in the airport security process.   A premature statement from the national aviation authority in China saying no-one was to blame for letting the hijackers on board did nothing to inspire confidence in the investigation.

But most of all, commentators were critical of the message the lavish gifts and rewards for the passengers would send.   The incident could lead to passengers being quick to intervene in incidents best left to the crew, and could have unforeseen and dangerous consequences.

This very serious incident is a reminder of the importance of some of the basics of crisis communications - being prepared for the unimaginable, responding quickly with a carefully rehearsed plan, and communicating rapidly to build and maintain trust. 

It is not enough to manage an incident effectively.  Immediate and competent communication by staff dedicated to this task is critical.

It also demonstrates that no country is immune to the power of social media in an emergency.

When a crisis hits, if your company does not provide rapid information, your critics will.


First published in the magazine of Kenyon International Emergency Services

Donald Steel is an Associate Director, Crisis Communications, at Kenyon International Emergency Services and a regular guest lecturer and workshop leader at the China Media Centre of the University of Westminster, London.