AirAsia Crash 2014: Crisis Review
1. Introduction
As the biggest budget airline in Asia and one of five Indonesian airlines allowed to fly into European Union nations, according to Aviation Safety Network (as cited in Janes, Park & Rothman, 2014), AirAsia had no fatal crashes in its history for more than a decade of operations. However, after thirteen years the business had run, AirAsia QZ8501 carrying 162 passengers went missing as it lost contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on 28th December 2014 (Bruton, 2015). Since the bad weather was the cause of the missing flight, on 29th December 2014, Indonesian officials declared that the flight was likely at the bottom of the ocean (“AirAsia QZ8501: A timeline of the search for the Indonesian airliner missing over Java Sea”, 2015).
Studying this crash tragedy, this report aims at analysing the key communication and operational strategies used by AirAsia to overcome this crisis.
2. Crisis Event, Timeline and Responses
Causing loss of lives, this crash tragedy is considered a crisis due to the unpredictable event that threatens the important expectancies of the stakeholders and seriously impacts the performance of AirAsia as the organisation (Coombs, 2012, p. 2). Moreover, if this crisis is not assessed properly, this tragedy will put its reputation into risk (Doorley & Garcia, 2007, p. 4). Determining its success and failure, the stakeholders who are the government of Indonesia and the families of the victims are the parties that AirAsia need to work with in its operational strategies dealing with the crisis.
To understand the sequence of events and AirAsia’s communication strategy in handling this crash tragedy, table 1 below is the summary describing when the tragedy happened and how AirAsia management controlled the crisis.
Based on table 1 above, by declaring its flight went missing and establishing the emergency call centre, AirAsia managed to organise responses to the issue by acting in
As the biggest budget airline in Asia and one of five Indonesian airlines allowed to fly into European Union nations, according to Aviation Safety Network (as cited in Janes, Park & Rothman, 2014), AirAsia had no fatal crashes in its history for more than a decade of operations. However, after thirteen years the business had run, AirAsia QZ8501 carrying 162 passengers went missing as it lost contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on 28th December 2014 (Bruton, 2015). Since the bad weather was the cause of the missing flight, on 29th December 2014, Indonesian officials declared that the flight was likely at the bottom of the ocean (“AirAsia QZ8501: A timeline of the search for the Indonesian airliner missing over Java Sea”, 2015).
Studying this crash tragedy, this report aims at analysing the key communication and operational strategies used by AirAsia to overcome this crisis.
2. Crisis Event, Timeline and Responses
Causing loss of lives, this crash tragedy is considered a crisis due to the unpredictable event that threatens the important expectancies of the stakeholders and seriously impacts the performance of AirAsia as the organisation (Coombs, 2012, p. 2). Moreover, if this crisis is not assessed properly, this tragedy will put its reputation into risk (Doorley & Garcia, 2007, p. 4). Determining its success and failure, the stakeholders who are the government of Indonesia and the families of the victims are the parties that AirAsia need to work with in its operational strategies dealing with the crisis.
To understand the sequence of events and AirAsia’s communication strategy in handling this crash tragedy, table 1 below is the summary describing when the tragedy happened and how AirAsia management controlled the crisis.
Based on table 1 above, by declaring its flight went missing and establishing the emergency call centre, AirAsia managed to organise responses to the issue by acting in
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