The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which was carrying 227 passengers, predominantly Chinese, mysteriously disappeared in March 2014. Despite the extensive search, the plane is still missing, giving no closure to grieved families.
The search for MH370 challenged the airline to develop numerous strategies to handle the incident, however several tactics couldn’t be applied as the aircraft is still unsearchable.
Vice President, Operations Control Centre of Malaysia Airlines of Malaysia Airlines, Fuad Sharuji was in Macau as part of a conference on crisis management. The crisis director for flights MH370 and MH17 has told the Times about his role in the immediate response and crisis communication plan of the troubled airline, stressing that several strategies had to be devised, ranging from “proactive to reactive.”
“A lot of the strategies couldn’t be applied so we had to change strategies as we went along,” said Mr Sharuji on the sidelines of the Asia Emergency
Management Conference yesterday. “Mainly because we had to react to a lot of media about conspiracy theories regarding MH370. And so we were more in reactive mode, so that makes it very, very difficult,” he added.
Meanwhile the crisis director admitted that the aircraft MH17, which was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014 and was shot down, killing nearly 300 on board; was easier to handle despite his claims of the “gruesome” scenario.
Fuad Sharuji
Sharuji, an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer who has over 35-years experience working for Malaysia Airlines, recalled that the airline had collaborated with the Malaysian government team and its special forces and would go to the crash site in Ukraine.
“The window given to us was very slim. There was only a good two hours to be at a crash site because it was a war zone,” he said.
Conversely, Sharuji implied that the Malaysian government was fully involved in the search for the MH370 missing aircraft, along with the support of around seven states including Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. He stressed that the search was fully coordinated and undertaken by its government. The Dutch government, however, had a vital role in the investigation, recovery of remains and repatriation of passengers in the crashed aircraft MH17.
“As for the Dutch government, [they] contributed a lot to the MH17 search, including tactical and criminal investigation […] they helped carry all of the nearly 9,000 personal belongings [of the passengers] and flew them to Holland. Then we sanitized them and returned them to their loved ones,” explained the director.
Sharuji admitted that they struggled with the communication strategy despite hiring a media consultant as several communications were to be done in Mandarin.
Moreover, Malaysia Airlines had held daily family briefings for MH370 passenger’s relatives for nearly two months in Beijing, providing meals, accommodation and medical assistance services. The airlines also established five family assistance centers in the area.
“The challenge is that there’s a lot more of what we don’t know than what we know,” the director admitted. “There’s not much that we can tell them.”
The airline also continues to provide post-traumatic stress assistance with local Chinese counselors from Beijing. Though the director claimed that they have requested to stop the family meetings, he revealed that the Chinese government has advised them to continue with lesser frequency, resulting in only once a month face-to-face meetings.
Sharuji also revealed that several relatives have accepted compensation from the airlines but admitted that many are still in deep grief, and some are still refusing to accept explanations from the airlines, as they strongly believe in the conspiracy theories regarding the plane’s disappearance.
Nevertheless, the director told the Times that there were certain departments in the airline that didn’t function well during the search for the missing aircraft in supporting and handling the crisis more effectively.
“We never expected the lightning to strike twice, […] but we had our business continuity plan and enforced the normal business plan to go on,” he added. Staff reporter
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