How USAir Rushed to Calm Public After Crash : Airlines: Its public relations team worked long hours to update consumers, travel agents, media and the government.
Lynn McCloud was putting together a photo album just before heading to bed Sunday night when she got the call--a USAir commuter jet had crashed at La Guardia Airport in New York, and she was needed at work.
Flight 405 crashed at 9:37 p.m. EST while taking off. The death toll rose to 26 Monday, with one person missing and 24 injured.
McCloud arrived at USAir headquarters in Arlington, Va., at 10 p.m., just 15 minutes after hearing the news of the crash. She spent the next five hours investigating what happened: initial information on the crash’s cause, who was on the plane, who was killed, who was missing. She briefed reporters, went home for three hours of sleep and was back at 6 a.m. to do it all over again.
“It’s incredibly tedious,” McCloud said. “You could do sleep deprivation studies on our staff.”
Tedious, perhaps, but essential. An airline’s main public relations mission in the face of disasters such as Sunday’s is to quell consumer panic and maintain the company’s reputation by keeping open the lines of communication.
“The key is to have systems in place so that you can react immediately,” said Ron Rogers, president of Rogers & Associates public relations, which specializes in crisis situations. “Whether it’s the company’s fault or not, you have to be able to communicate to the average consumer, travel agencies, government officials and the media.”
Some industry watchers contend that an accident of this proportion could cause business to drop off as panicked travelers cancel reservations.
“For a short period of time, it has an effect,” said Jack Bloch, owner of JB’s World Travel in Manhattan. “People are calling today. Whether they mean it or not, they will say, ‘Don’t put me on USAir.’ It’s a psychological thing, even though lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.”
But USAir said there were actually 4,000 more reservations Monday than the 150,000 of the week before. Each day about 180,000 passengers fly USAir, the company said.
“In our experience there are usually only a modest number of cancellations, and the airline is only affected slightly,” McCloud said.
On Monday, USAir canceled advertising for a week in keeping with industry tradition. Other airlines, including Northwest, also pulled their ads, although every carrier doesn’t necessarily cancel its advertising after a competitor’s plane crashes.
USAir’s corporate heads were available for comment and questions at a press conference Monday. And company representatives took pains to emphasize the airline’s safety record.
USAir has 436 jets completing an average of 2,600 flights daily, said David H. Shipley, the company’s assistant vice president of public relations.
“Most consumers are savvy enough to know that an accident is a one-time occurrence,” Huff said. “We believe that our company has a solid reputation, that we have operated well in the past and that our reputation will serve us even during times of a crisis.”
Sunday’s crash is USAir’s third fatal accident in four years. A USAir 737 collided with a Skywest Airlines commuter flight in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 1991, killing 34. Another USAir jet crashed into the East River in a similar accident at La Guardia that killed two people on Sept. 20, 1989.
Wall Street did not seem overly concerned that the crash would have a lasting effect on the company. USAir stock fell 37 1/2 cents a share to $17.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
* MAIN STORY: A1
