Crisis Management Strategies

Part 1

Introduction

In the year 2013, there was an aircraft crash at San Francisco international airport when it was coming from the Seoul region of South Korea. The whole accident was observed by a passenger while she was waiting for another flight. The passenger was waiting at San Francisco international airport for her flight, but when she observed the accident, she immediately clicked a photograph. After that she posted the photograph on Twitter and within approximately 30 minutes, nearly 44000 tweets were posted with respect to the accident. These tweets included videos and photos which were taken by the survivors who escaped from the accidental area. Nowadays, social media has become a platform for getting different kinds of news. The users of social media are increasing day by day, and the public is getting immediate information about any kind of crisis from social media. Moreover, this report includes a detailed description of the drone crisis happened in Gatwick airport limited. This was a global crisis for this airport, and it was financially affecting the aviation industry. Proper identification of the stakeholders related to the incident and their impact will be thoroughly analysed in this report.

Overview of the Crisis

Somewhere in the range of nineteen and twenty-one December in the year 2018, many aircraft were dropped at the well known "Gatwick Airport", and it was reported that there were some drones seen near the runway area of the airport. Moreover, the episode created a significant moving disturbance, influencing nearly 140,000 travellers along with more than 1,000 flights (Christensen et al. 2016). After that incident, on December twenty-first, the Sussex Police team captured an automaton aficionado and his accomplice who lived close to the air terminal. However, they were discharged without any allegations on the incident of 23 December. In addition to that, after that incident was accounted for, no automatons existed. So, this emergency was a type of bogus caution (gatwickairport.com, 2020).

Emergencies inside the Aviation business are getting increasingly visited, and their repercussions progressively extreme. A quickly evolving political, natural, social and innovative atmosphere is affecting all businesses, aeronautics is the same. Moreover, the world's carriers, 2017, was a decent year—more individuals than at any time in recent memory voyage, which was around 4.1 billion. In addition to this, the world is more dependent on a flight than at any time in recent memory, which means the effect that emergencies can have is higher than at any other time (Coccia, 2020). The air freight business posted development of 9.7%, the major grounding since the year 2010.

Key Stakeholders Involved

The aviation industry was exposed commercially because of this crisis situation. In addition to this, the security service department and the government were also affected because of that incident. The reputation of the aviation organisation was harmed in a negative manner, and that was the main concern of the higher authority of the aviation companies. There were insufficient preparation and control which caused the accident. In addition to this, a firm takes the responsibility to handle crisis and its impact. Proper communication is essential to overcome from that crisis situation. It was essential to emerging with the existing reputation of the company for developing the crisis situation (Coombs and Laufer, 2018). The relationship between all the key stakeholders of the aviation industry needs to be solved for further development. It is the duty of the security department to check all the details properly for preventing any crisis situation. On the other hand, if the government makes some regulations for checking the flights and airports properly, then it would be beneficial for preventing critical issues in the aviation industry. In addition to this, all the passengers who used to take flights from Gatwick airport suffered a lot. The travelling industry also faces different kinds of critical situations because of a severe crisis. Moreover, the tourism companies also were negatively affected because of the crisis happening in the airport. In addition to this, the hierarchy of the division industry was affected because a lot of flights were cancelled because of that crisis. Mistakes admitted by the leaders of public relation authority. The reputation of the public relation companies was also hampered because of these critical issues. Moreover, it can be stated that there are many stakeholders negatively affected because of this crisis moment.

Impact

A lot of flights were cancelled because of drone prices happening in the Gatwick airport. The financial structure of the abbreviated companies was negatively impacted because of this critical issue. In addition to this, more than a thousand flights were cancelled, so the revenue of the companies rapidly decreased. In addition to this, a lot of passengers were affected, and they became disappointed because of the critical issues. In addition to this, drone prices affected the environmental, political, technological and social climate of the country. The tourism industry was also affected in a negative manner, and there was a huge loss faced by the tourism industry. The government did not get enough tax payment because of all the major industries financially disabled pay the government tax. So it can be stated that the financial structure of the country was negatively affected because of the slightest moment. There was huge commercial damage that happened in 2018, which is considered as a global crisis (Hamilton et al. 2018). Nowadays, people are using social media on their personal devices such as laptop smartphones and tablets. So, the news was widely spread all over the region of the world. The potential reputation of aviation companies was negatively affected because there was a lack of management skills within the airport authority. There were many policies prepared by the aviation industry, which was not followed by the respective authority. Moreover travelling disruption was found in that area which hampers the economic condition of the aviation industry.

Part 2

Crisis Management

There were some strategies followed by LGW for managing the crisis moment and mitigate all the potential barriers. Crisis management was done by following some steps which are mentioned in the below section. The drone attack at Gatwick Airport was a big crisis for the aviation industry and all passengers. Many flights were cancelled because of the drone incident happened there. It is significantly risky if a drone is present near airport area and it can cause crash. As Gatwick is an international airport, therefore many passengers were waiting there and it became a huge risk to their life. Flights were rescheduled for preventing this kind of crisis in Gatwick Airport. Moreover, the police had received total 92 sightings of some drones. In addition to that, no photographs or videos were acquired by the police from the airport. The head investigator of Sussex police asked if there were any drones or not. However, the higher authority of Gatwick Airport announced £50,000 reward for arresting the convicted person who spread the news. After that incident the police officers were criticized poorly because of handling the incident poorly. Hence, it can be stated that, it was a huge crisis for the aviation industry and few strategies needs to be followed by the hierarchy for preventing these kinds of incidents in the future.

However, Gatwick as a operational body used crisis management in that particular incident for preventing any kind of future crisis in that airport. The higher authority of the Gatwick Airport takes the responsibility to properly look after each and every detail of the operations of the airport. The security department of Gatwick checks that any kind of fake news must not be created (Reuter et al. 2018). Taking photographs was restricted in some areas of the Gatwick Airport, which was beneficial for preventing the publication of fake news. Communication skills were enhanced for unfolding the situation. Proper planning was done by the respective authority of the Gatwick Airport for preventing any kind of critical issues. The management team of the airport the responsibility to provide high-quality services to all the passengers. In addition to this, the technical department of the Gatwick Airport has the responsibility to take all the operations of the aircraft. Before launching the flight, all the parts of the aeroplanes were checked by the technical department, which is beneficial to prevent the rate of the air crash (Liu et al. 2017). Public security was the major focus of the airport. All the staff members were properly trained by the higher authority of the airport, which is essential to solving the critical issues happening within the company. The manufacturing department properly looked after all the parts of the aircraft to check whether there is any kind of fault or not. The crisis management team firstly prepared a proper plan then tested that plan. After that, proper communication was established by the higher authority of Gatwick Airport, which is essential to find innovative ideas.

Effective training to enhance the professional skills of the employees, which is beneficial to solve any kind of critical issues within the Gatwick. After that, post-crisis evaluation was properly done by the leaders of the Gatwick (Adebayo, 2017). Developed technologies were used for enhancing the functions of the aircraft. Technological improvement is essential to improve the internal functions of the aircraft and the engineering department properly checks all the minute details for preventing any kind of crash.

Resources

There are different kinds of resources which are used in every industry for running a successful business. For example, human resources need to be used for increasing the productivity of the company. Proper monitoring and guidance are essential to use human resources for running a business in an effective manner. all the employees of the aggregation industry need to be trained properly for checking the functions of aircraft and look after all the activities happening in the airport (Bundy et al. 2017). Crisis management can be done by following effective planning, and it can be done by recruiting efficient employees. Moreover, it is essential to have better and skilled employees in finding innovative ideas and strategies to overcome any kind of crisis. In addition to this, some technological equipment means to be bought by the respective authority of aircraft firms. In addition to this, some financial resources are essential to developing the technological equipment of the aircraft. Using modified technologies would be beneficial for enhancing the existing functions of the business.

Along with that, all the passengers could get a lot of facilities by using modified technologies. Hence it is essential to invest huge amounts for technological development which is mandatory for improving the existing functions of the aviation industry. All of these resources were properly used by the higher authority department. Correct implementation of the crisis management plan was done by the respective authority, and it was essential to solve all the issues.

Overview of the commercial damage

The drone crisis affected the reputation of Gatwick airport and around thousands of flights were cancelled. In addition to this 140000 passengers suffered because of that incident. After that, the police arrested two suspects, but they could not find any kind of proof against them. So the suspect was released, and no charges were claimed on them. The financial growth of air cargo was negatively affected because of this incident (Williams et al. 2017). Moreover, it can be stated that there was huge commercial damage that happened in that year. Proper security plans need to be adopted for preventing these kinds of issues in the future. The financial condition of the aviation industry was solved by using proper resources and following the exact plan prepared by the leaders. Resources need to be allocated in different sections or departments for effective and correct use. The leader of the organisation needs to take charge to properly arrange the resources in different departments for solving the existing issues and prevent future issues of the aviation industry.

Conclusion

This report critically describes the impact of the drone crisis that happened at Gatwick airport. Proper evidence where provided in this report is essential to describe the incident in detail. The crisis hampered the economic structure of the aviation industry, and a lot of passengers were also affected because of this critical issue. Many flights were cancelled because of the drone crisis and the passengers of a lot. In addition to this, the security department also faced different kinds of challenges.detailed information about the key stakeholders who were involved with the crisis was elaborated in the upper section. Moreover, a proper crisis management plan needs to be followed for preventing these types of crises in the future. This is essential to follow developed strategies for solving critical issues. However, it can be concluded that proper strategy needs to be applied for finding innovative ways to solve any kind of critical situation. Emergency protocols need to be created, and people should gather knowledge about these photo calls for reducing the negative impact of the crisis.

Reference list

Adebayo, O., 2017. The application of Facebook to crisis communication management: a case study of Malaysia airlines (Doctoral dissertation, University of Salford).

Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M.D., Short, C.E. and Coombs, W.T., 2017. Crises and crisis management: Integration, interpretation, and research development. Journal of Management, 43(6), pp.1661-1692.

Christensen, T., Andreas Danielsen, O.L.E., Laegreid, P. and H. RYKKJA, L.I.S.E., 2016. Comparing coordination structures for crisis management in six countries. Public Administration, 94(2), pp.316-332.

Coccia, M., 2020. Critical Decisions in Crisis Management.

Coombs, W.T. and Laufer, D., 2018. Global crisis management–current research and future directions. Journal of International Management, 24(3), pp.199-203.

gatwickairport.com, (2020), Crisis management. Available at: https://www.gatwickairport.com/globalassets/publicationfiles/business_and_community/regulation/economic_regulation/14-10-01-operational-resilience-report-and-monitoring-report-final-for-publication.pdf [Accessed on 01.06.2020]

Hamilton, R.A., Randall, W.S. and Hanna, J.B., 2018. Aviation Management: A Discipline in Crisis?. The Collegiate Aviation Review International, 26(2).

intelligence.weforum.org, (2020), Steps to prevent drone crisis. Available at: https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb0000002ZKplEAG?tab=publications [Accessed on 01.06.2020]

Liu, Y., Shankar, V. and Yun, W., 2017. Crisis management strategies and the long-term effects of product recalls on firm value. Journal of Marketing, 81(5), pp.30-48.

Reuter, C., Hughes, A.L. and Kaufhold, M.A., 2018. Social media in crisis management: An evaluation and analysis of crisis informatics research. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 34(4), pp.280-294.

Williams, T.A., Gruber, D.A., Sutcliffe, K.M., Shepherd, D.A. and Zhao, E.Y., 2017. Organizational response to adversity: Fusing crisis management and resilience research streams. Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), pp.733-769.