MSc Air Safety Management Crisis Management

U Emergency Response Plan

The following study has been prepared for the board of directors of the company outlining the
required changes, amendments and additions required for the Emergency Response Plan of the airline.

The scope
The ERP is not just another manual and not another bureaucratic process for an airline. Under the new
EASA regulations the ERP must comply with ORO.GEN.200 and AMC 1 ORO.GEN.200 (section 8.1
regarding the Safety Management Manual). It is also a requirement for an IOSA certificate allowing the
airline to cooperate with other companies in code-sharing flights since the airline is responsible for
each passenger purchasing a ticket under the airline’s name.
Its aim is to highlight the procedures and the policies to be implemented in case of a crisis, offer advice
to the members of the teams carrying out their responsibilities in terms of responding to the crisis and
communicate all the relevant information to the employees of the airline as well as to the members of
the public. As opposed to other company manuals, the ERP is intended to provide guidance and
procedures for situations which cannot be precisely defined and cannot be specifically covered. Thus
the ERP is a set of intentions to be initiated and carried out in the unfortunate event of a crisis either
this is an accident, a bomb threat, a health crisis etc. Any situation that involves human safety,
extensive product damage, disruption of business, or grounds for litigation must be considered a crisis.
The primary objective of this is to be able to respond to a crisis in a timely manner, but importantly to
respond promptly without affecting the everyday normal operation of the company. Responding to a
crisis by paralysing the rest of the organisation is of no use. Developing a standardized plan ensures
that all involved personnel know their responsibilities and are aware of the required agencies and
managers to be contacted. Since a lot of agencies and other people must be contacted the ERP will
prevent duplicate work and unnecessary waste of time. Thorough planning of resources during the
crisis will ensure casualties and property damages are minimised.

The emergency response centre

The emergency response centre is the heart of the operations during a crisis. The centre must be
located away from public access and preferably to an unknown to the public place. A good emergency
centre for this airline is the conference room in our training facilities where we have all the security
required and plenty of room to work around. It does not disrupt operations and is away from the
public’s eye. However the ERC requires upgrade with regards to the equipment. At the moment the
ERC lacks vital equipment for a proper coordination. New hardware is required with accessibility to the
airlines internal network as well as access to internet. New (however cheap) terminals should be
purchased. Each member (10) of the ERC requires a telephone machine with silent and light function
as well as teleconference ability. A fax machine and a photocopier –preferably not combined in a single
machine- are also required equipment whilst a television will increase the awareness of the personnel
regarding the crisis as a lot of information is flowing through the media. Stationeries must include
whiteboards, logbooks, diaries, notebooks etc.
Since the room is used for other purposes as well, the equipment must be protected from
unauthorised and careless use, so it is recommended to have the equipment stored in a nearby storing
room within the building and be accessible when needed. Through practise and training the room
should not take more than 30 minutes to be set-up.
The ERC is assembled in order to collect data, organize the dissemination of information to various
persons and agencies, and maintain all records and reports associated with the event, under the
directions of the ER manager. Further to his assistance the following people should have a desk in the
ERC: the accident sire coordination manager, person responsible for passenger manifest, logbook

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keeper administration, security manager, communication administrator, SAT coordinator, staff

coordinator, engineering liaison and the media/ public relations manager.

The team
Without the proper team to implement it, the ERP is of no use, thus the emergency response team is
the most crucial part of the ERP. The team does not only comprise of the managers and the staff with
specific job, but also includes many volunteers both intra-company and from outside the company, as
well as many contracted services. Planning the ERP team; it is always a good practise to committing
more resources than actually necessary and scaling down as required depending on the circumstances,
rather than finding yourself in need of expanding operations in the middle of a crisis; since this will
only bring extra pressure and stress on the already stressful situation.
The ERP structure includes two primary levels of required personnel. The one level refers to the ERC
team as discussed above whilst the other refers to the SAT team. The Special Assistance Team, also
refer to as the Care team, is the most important asset during the crisis. They have the difficult task of
being present at the accident site in order to provide the first contact point between the ERC and the
site and assure proper deployment of the planned services to the victims and their relatives. These
include compassionate listening, initial practical guidance. Formal counselling should not be given in
their duties though. They are usually deployed at the accident site or at the survivor’s reception centre
and later on at the Family Assistance Centre. The required number of people depends on the scale of
the accident but a rough rule indicates that the team should be twice the number of the passengers on
the aeroplane. However this mandates a large number of people which mean that operations maybe
dramatically impaired. Thus careful selection must be made such that the people in the team can give
their greatest effort. In choosing these members psychological testing must be included in the
selection process as well as special notification to any extra qualifications they may have – these
include foreign languages, psychology studies etc. Many members will just be volunteers and it is thus
important to get to know the team beforehand such that each individual is properly used in
accordance with his/her capabilities. The company must assure that these members have unrestricted
access to the countries we operate such that they can be present at the shortest notice. Company
should also prepare these members in terms of special medical requirements like specific vaccinations
required (e.g. tetanus or yellow fever). Emphasis must be given on the post crisis treatment of those
involved as counselling, rest, extra holidays and psychological care may be required before returning to
normal duties.

The company needs to assure contract services or emergency mutual assistance compacts with
specialised services providing the family assistance centre, the victim recovery and identification
process, the repatriation procedures, wreckage clearance, mortuary, mental health assistance, setting
up a call centre etc. Organisations like Kenyon and Blake are one of the most capable in providing all
the necessary assistance. They can be contracted for an on demand basis.
Furthermore, personal contact and agreements must be established with some environmental and
other non-profit organisations as well as humanitarian organisation like Red Cross. In addition
cooperation with the local army forces, the police and in general the local state must be initiated since
their assistance during these crises, especially at the accident site is tremendous and unlimited. Charity
organisations, religious groups etc can also be very helpful.

As the airline belongs to an alliance and has many code share agreements, it is important to note that
assistance must be sought from other airlines especially at locations not easily accessible by our airline
personnel. Bear in mind however that as they are obliged to assist us, so we are, so we must be
prepared for accident involving other airlines in our alliance!

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Communications
The communications sections comprises of three different kinds. We need intra-company
communication system such that we keep our employees informed and alert. This can be achieved
through the normal way of communicating decisions and news to the company – i.e. through our
administration system. Secondly we need to establish communication between the ERC and the SAT
team as soon as possible. For this depending on the location of the accident, a few simple and some
not so simple ways may be used. Special dedicated telephone lines and mobile phones may be enough
but sometimes it would be more useful and easier to also have a satellite telephone.
However the biggest concern should be given in establishing a way of communicating to the public.
Most important is the accessibility we give to the relatives of the victims to contact the company. A toll
free number accessible from around the world is required such that anybody wishing to can contact
the company. Further to this the company website must have a dark version, a pop up link, giving
updates on the progress of the accident and any other relating news. Bearing in mind the current day’s
way of communication the social media is a big advantage in order to inform people. Facebook and
twitter are the most common social media and they should be used accordingly. The company must
communicate to the people using these tools as they can give more detailed and more precise
information than any other way. It is therefore one of the reasons that the terminals at the ERC must
have free access to the internet, meaning that pages like facebook, twitter or some aviation blogs must
not be blocked by the firewall.
Finally the utmost attentions and care must be given to the press. Journalist will try to get the most out
of an airplane accident which is always a high publicity event. This means that they will try to unbury
old company stories, try to bypass security and go unrestricted areas etc. Sometimes they go even
further trying to speculate such that they create a story etc. It is therefore essential to keep these
people under your radar. This can be achieved by giving regular press statements, even if there are no
news updates. It is very important not to lie to the press but never openly accept blame. No
speculations should be made as to the cause of the accident and care must be given not to release
confidential details under the emotional stress. Do not release any names of the victims before
everybody is positively identified and their relatives are also informed. The media is the factor that will
either help the airline get through the crisis or they can bury the company for good. It is therefore a
good practise to avoid personal statements, but have a dedicated spokesman; a person educated and
trained to give these kinds of speeches able to sustain pressure and a question war.

Training
No plan is good if it is only on paper. The ERP is a dynamic process with many variables and a lot of
inputs from a variety of sources. It is therefore easy to miss things that could go undetected until the
very late instance. In order to overcome this implementation through training and scenarios exercises
must be scheduled. Proper education and training for all levels of management and personnel
involved is essential. Exercises including all the involved agencies, services and other entities must be
established with dynamic scenarios. Forms of training include: full scale exercises where training is
done on an actual aircraft, periodic follow‐up training, ensure all personnel involved in emergency
response read the plan every year and sign off to certify that they have read it, regularly train
responders on airport access point locations, access procedures, and escort procedures, visit the city,
county, local police station, local fire station, volunteer fire station, once a year or when new
employees are hired to talk about personnel and various situations they may need to be aware of
when responding to emergencies. Through these kinds of activities first contact relations are
established with everybody involved assisting in getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of each
person, each department and each procedure. First person contact makes communicating with them
much easier and thus increases response time.

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Finance
An important aspect for every new procedure is the required expenditures. Setting up the proper
equipment is the first important step in achieving a proper reaction to a crisis. The electrical
equipment regarding the set up of the ERC is not high and based on some company agreements, it
should not exist 5000 euros. The IT department of the airline can set everything up whilst many of the
required equipment are already available.
However the serious amount of money comes during the crisis. The company must assemble the care
team and send them to the accident location site, provide full accommodation at a nearby hotel etc.
However not only the care team needs this type of transportation and accommodation, but so do the
victims’ relatives. Proper accommodation must be provided to them including transportation to the
accident site. Depending on the accident location up to 3 special flights maybe required for this
transportation. If operations do not allow a company aircraft to be used, charter services must be
sought. Expecting this to carry on for about one week, means that the cost could reach up to 250
thousand euros. This amount of money must be readily available at any time and be accessible to the
ER manager for use accordingly even though many of the above mentioned taken care by the
commercial department (i.e. hotel bookings etc). But as accident do not always happen near the
aerodromes, or at the cities being served by the airline, the company may not have ready contracts
with any hotels or facilities and on demand payment on the go may be required.
The post accident expenditures can be huge since the airline is paying for everything including the
removal of wreckage, site clean-up and of course any kind of services used. Litigations are expected so
a budget for lawsuits should be expected to rise, but this will not be urgent. Bear also in mind that the
European Commission legislation (996) demand that each victim is compensated for 16000 euros
which means the amount could reach 2-3 millions!

Accidents in aviation are rare, but when do happen they attract a lot of publicity and their effects are
devastating to the company. Accident prevention is not expensive considering the amount required to
get over an accident that has happened. The proper preparation to react in these circumstances is vital
for the continuity of the business having in mind that the first reaction of the initial 2-3 hours after the
event will judge the outcome and set the events for the next days.

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