FLYING

THROUGH CRISIS
MH370: LESSONS IN CRISIS
COMMUNICATIONS

Balanced, vivid, eyewitness analysis of crisis

cases
DAVID KIRKHAM;
KRISHNAMOORTHY MUTHALY

Malaysia Airlines
suffered a double
disaster. MH370
lost and Flight
MH17 shot down.
Pg VIII

What was
your
reaction?

How Your Attitude

Shows In Your
Behaviour?
Are you passionate
enough?

Flying Through
Crisis
MH370: Lessons
In Crisis
Communications

Book addresses what

remains one of the
21st Centurys
greatest mysteries
with the loss of
MH370 on 8th March
2014. Pg VIII
The future of
Malaysia Airlines was
placed in greater
jeopardy by the
second aircraft loss
and so the chapter
reviewing the crisis
impacts has been
updated. Pg VIII

That
makes it a
double
tragedy.
They feel
there was
nothing
they could
have
done.

The book is an
extended case
study in public
and media
communicatio
ns during a
crisis.
Pg VIII

What it does do is provide

sound and entirely
practical advice on how to
handle communications in
a complex and longrunning crisis. Pg VIII
The book emphasises
learning from the crisis by
concentrating both on
those things which went
well and those which did
not. Pg VIII

The book addresses media relations,

press conferences, written statements,
interactions between media and families,
social media use, training
spokespeople, media agendas, angles and
politics and delivering key messages.
Pg VIII

Learning is a journey

Pg x

Najib Tun Razak commented, But we didnt get

everything right. In the first few days after the plane
disappeared, we were so focused on trying to find the
aircraft that we did not prioritise our communications.
Pg x1

KRISHNAMOORTHY MUTHALY
MEDIA EXPERT

Why is internal communication so

important to get right?
CEOs and employees need to voice their
opinions for the improvement of an
organization
Flying Through Crisis is written in all
humility about how Malaysia, propelled
onto the world stage, handled the crisis
communications. Pg x

Humble leaders and

workers must seek
views from others to
ensure they have all the
facts in making
decisions that are in the
best interest of the
team.

The reputation of
Malaysia Airlines and
the government is
influenced by
perceptions created by
the media Pg xi

Dont write anything

that will hurt our
leaders, the
Government or the
airlines Pg xii

From
learning
comes
underst
anding
and
knowled
ge.
Knowled
ge sets
us free,
for it is
ignoranc
e that
keeps
people
fearful.
Pg xii

A coverup is an
attempt,
whether
successf
ul or
not, to
conceal
evidenc
e of
wrongdo
ing,
error or
incompe
tence.

No country has
performed to perfection
in any crisis and
Malaysia is no
exception.
Nevertheless, lessons
have to be learned, with
nothing swept under
the carpet. Pg 1

Sometimes,
organisations are
unprepared for the
communications side of
a disaster even though
they are well-prepared
for an operational
response.

Plan, prepare
and practice

If your operational response is good and

communication is poor, the public will perceive
that you have failed on both accounts. If you don't
prepare, you will incur more damage and costs.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of
preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and wit

hout such preparation there is sure to be failure.

As the
media
continu
es
playing
up a
crisis,
especial
ly the
negativ
e
aspects
about
the
respons
ePg 2

Stop letting people who

do so little for you to
control so much of your
mind, feelings and
emotions Will Smith

While attending the press

conferences, it was obvious
that some, but certainly
not all, of the
spokespeople were neither
well trained nor properly
advised about managing
the media.
Pg 2

Expectations of Effective
Communications
In a crisis, the expectations placed on
government and company officials are at
their most demanding. So what went
wrong with communications surrounding
the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines
flight MH370 and how could this have
been done better? Pg 2