Yesterday was a very sad day for aviation, as we saw the tragic crash of an Air India Boeing 787, claiming at least 290 lives (between those onboard and those on the ground). It’s the worst aviation disaster we’ve seen in many years, and hopefully an investigation reveals what happened, so that nothing like this happens again.
While minor in the scheme of things, I can’t help but pass on something interesting that OMAAT reader DRM shared, about how Air India is handling its communications following this tragedy.
Campbell Wilson copied Robert Isom’s crisis response
At the time of yesterday’s accident, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson was onboard a Boeing 787-8 bound for Paris. The plane ended up returning to Delhi, so that he could be on the ground to lead the company and provide support.
As you’d expect, one of his first orders of business was recording a video message about the incident. It’s important for airline executives to do a good job with this, as it really sets the tone for the public’s perception of how well a company is responding.
Wilson’s video message was great — it struck the right tone, and shared as many facts as possible, without speculating.
There’s only one small issue. It was basically a word-for-word copy of the statement that American Airlines CEO Robert Isom gave earlier this year, following the crash of an American Eagle jet.
Of course there are only so many ways to phrase things, but it’s basically a carbon copy — the order, the details provided, and even the words used. The only thing Wilson did slightly differently is to start by saying “good afternoon,” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because I don’t think it was a “good” afternoon for the airline.
I don’t think anyone could watch the two videos and not think that Air India simply used what Isom said as a transcript, and replaced details as needed. Like, the entire thing is copied, from beginning to end.
To be clear, this is far from the most important thing going on with the current crisis. But I also see some people I respect giving credit to Campbell for his video response, and even suggesting it’s his Singapore Airlines training on show here. I don’t think he deserves that credit, in light of this.
Does this take way from the sincerity of the messaging?
American CEO Robert Isom was widely praised for his handling of the American Eagle crash earlier this year. He might not be good at running a profitable airline, but he sure is good with this kind of messaging, and I agree that he did a phenomenal job, and struck exactly the right tone.
So I suppose on the one hand, you can’t blame someone else for being “inspired” by Isom’s message. At the same time, does Wilson essentially copying Isom’s response take away from the sincerity of what he’s saying? After all, what he’s saying doesn’t reflect Air India’s intent, but it’s instead just mimicking the messaging of someone who has done this successfully, as the airline says what it needs to say.
I’m a bit confused about how exactly this happened. Major airlines have a detailed plan in place in the event of a crisis, and airlines even perform “drills” at times. So when there’s an accident, you’d think each airline already has a script written about what the CEO is going to say, reflecting the company’s intended response.
Did Air India not have that? I wouldn’t be surprised if Wilson actually had no clue that the speech he was reading was copied from American. It’s possible someone at the carrier’s communications team simply presented it to him, and passed it off as their own work, and he thought it looked good (for good reason).
Bottom line
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson published a video message following yesterday’s Air India Boeing 787 crash. The message was calm, and struck the right tone. The only issue is that it was directly copied from American, when the airline had a crash earlier this year.
What do you make of the uncanny similarities between these video messages?
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