Helios Airways
December 2005
Introduction
At the recent ABTA convention in Marrakech, Paul Riches of Libra Holidays spoke of the effects the Helios Airways crash in Greece had on their organization. Both Libra Holidays and Helios are owned by the same parent company.
About the incident
You may recall this was the incident where the plane appeared to lose its oxygen supply to the flight crew, leaving the plane to crash into mainland Greece after running out of fuel. Media reports speculated that a passenger had got onto the flight deck to try and take over the control.
Interestingly, pre 9/11 access to the flight deck was relatively easy, now in the days of armour plated doors locked from the inside it’s almost impossible to gain entry, a conundrum for safety experts going forward.
This incident had a huge effect on Helios Airways based in Cyprus, with relentless media attention on the airline, creating a great strain on the directors, management and staff of the organisation.
Libra were affected in the UK as Helios was part of their group but they did not experience the same pressures as the airline team, Paul stated that the Helios Senior management were ‘emotionally scarred’ by the incident after dealing with the relatives and families of those killed and the media intrusion into their business on top of the shock of the whole incident itself
The pressure remains for quite some time in high profile incidents such as this. Companies have to be prepared for many weeks, months and even years of follow up. Families and staff need ongoing emotional and practical support, they want answers, there may be litigation, your brand is damaged and needs re-building, how your ‘aftercare’ works is also subject to media attention. How you deal with all this affects the public and media view of your organization. What do you do at the funerals, how do you mark anniversaries, what marks of respect do you pay to the families of those bereaved?
In the aftermath of the Kegworth crash, British Midland were still involved with anniversary memorial services for the families some years after the incident occurred.
Lessons
It pays to be prepared for these kinds of incident, all of this should be part of your crisis management plans and ensuring you have access to trained, specialist personnel to handle some of these issues is also paramount.
But whatever you do for your passengers, also remember your staff will need it to! Those staff in the emergency services who dealt with the London bombings of 7/7 required emotional support following the horrific scenes they witnessed underground. Providing this support gives them an opportunity to offload the things they saw, so they can get themselves back on track and avoid any absence from work due to the emotional stress or strain they may have experienced.
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