Qantas: 54 alarms (and three cheers)

Earlier this month, I posted some thoughts on key social networking crisis management lessons that may – or may not – emanate from the Qantas A380 emergency landing.  To my knowledge, many of the posed questions have not been addressed on that part of the crisis response.  So let’s continue to set those social media questions aside.

However, let’s not overlook some of the real-world lessons from the situation.   For example, this AP story provides a harrowing account of what the crew faced in the cockpit.  Key excerpts:

“The amount of failures is unprecedented,” said Richard Woodward, a fellow Qantas A380 pilot who has spoken to all five pilots. “There is probably a one in 100 million chance to have all that go wrong.”

But it did.

Engine pieces sliced electric cables and hydraulic lines in the wing. Would the pilots still be able to fly the seven-story-tall plane?

The wing’s forward spar — one of the beams that attaches it to the plane — was damaged as well. And the wing’s two fuel tanks were punctured. As fuel leaked out, a growing imbalance was created between the left and right sides of the plane, Woodward said.

The electrical power problems prevented the pilots from pumping fuel forward from tanks in the tail. The plane became tail heavy.

That may have posed the greatest risk, safety experts said. If the plane got too far out of balance, the Singapore-to-Sydney jetliner would lose lift, stall and crash.

And then there was that incredible stream of computer messages, 54 in all, alerting the pilots to system failures or warning of impending failures.

And now, the important part:

Continue reading Qantas: 54 alarms (and three cheers)

Crisis Management: Mastery and Proficiency

A few weeks ago, I participated in a Ketchum leadership workshop where we probed dependent, independent and interdependent leadership styles.  Respectively, this can be defined most simply as “you do it,” “I’ll do it,” and “we’ll do it.”   Neat.  

During the session, I raised the following:  “It’s tough to lead others if you’re not recognized as having mastered something.  And mastery can only come when you’ve pushed through the complacency of just being proficient.”

Okay, so this wasn’t an entirely original thought.  Just a few hours before the session I happened to have read this Forbes’ article by Amity Shales, which contains this nugget:

(My father, Jared Shlaes…) gave the best career advice I’ve ever heard: There will come a moment when you are bored with an area of study and will want to try something new. But that boredom is the signal you’ve achieved mastery. You’ll be quitting at the moment when it’s most costly to do so. Only a mastered trade can be properly monetized.

How do these thoughts on mastery and proficiency apply to crisis management?  It gets back to a statement I’ve often made.  “It takes about 5-7 years to learn all of the rules of crisis management and the rest of your career to challenge every single one of those rules.”  You have to constantly challenge assumptions and look beyond the obvious to be a master of your craft.  (That’s why I and others strongly favor experienced crisis managers and teams over plans.)  

I’ve recently stumbled on other viewpoints complementary to this one: Continue reading Crisis Management: Mastery and Proficiency

Too Soon to Qantify the Qantas Response?

If you are unfamiliar with Wednesday’s dramatic events that happened to Qantas, Austrialia’s national airline that has never had a fatal accident, the events are nicely chronicled on this post from Tnooz, a news and analysis site on the travel industry.

Condensed summary:

  • Qantas A380 makes a safe emergency return landing in Singapore after a Rolls-Royce made engine broke apart minutes after takeoff.
  • Passengers aboard the plane quickly Tweet and upload photos of videos of the engine and emergency landing efforts.
  • Reuters reports that CNBC television learns of a plane crashing near Singapore.
    • Note:  I could not evidence of a misreported crash anywhere on a CNBC website – beware of media sourcing media!
  • People on the ground on the small island of Batam upload photos of logoed engine parts (around the same time Qantas may have told Australian media there were no signs of wreckage)
  • On Wednesday evening, Qantas posted updates to its Facebook page.  The same night, one Tweet from its travel-tips account redirects inquiries to official Qantas channels, and its U.S.- targeted Twitter account adds a link the next day.

The Tnooz reporter concludes that the airline could have done more on Twitter to reassure the public.   Ragan.com’s Matt Wilson calls the situation “Qantas’s big #fail in quelling tweeted rumors of a crash.”  Crisisblogger Gerald Baron raises good questions and challenges, but ultimately grades the situation a C- to F grade

In my view, Qantas deserves a little more deliberation on its deliberation.

Continue reading Too Soon to Qantify the Qantas Response?