Case Study: Crisis Communication
Incident
EgyptAir flight 181 carrying 81 passengers and crew, en route from Alexandria to Cairo, was hijacked at approx. 8.30am by an assailant suspected being armed with a bomb. The plane then landed at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.
Process
FCM Crisis Communication was issued immediately news came to light to all FCM businesses worldwide who followed standard protocol to identify passengers of FCM clients on board. FCM UK reporting showed no affected clients.
FCM Dubai, however, did have an affected passenger. Here is the process they followed:
- Crisis was identified
- Check records through back office manifest reports
- Identified a passenger on the flight
- Local client was contacted and informed of the situation, initially by the travel manager with a follow up call from the general manager
- Attempt to call passenger, however phone was turned off
- Called the airline to confirm passenger manifest
- Sent an SMS message to the passenger
- Received confirmation from the passenger via text that he was off the plane when the majority of passengers were released
- Contacted the local client to confirm passenger’s safety status
- Maintained contact with passenger to arrange travel home from Cyprus.