Pinnacle AIrlines – Crisis Preparedness
Prepared to respond to a crisis
When Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed outside Buffalo, New York, officials of the airline and its parent company, Pinnacle Airlines, were well prepared to respond to the communications challenges. The entire senior management team had participated in Dix & Eaton’s highly interactive crisis communication training program, which included a simulation to test the team’s ability to communicate in the moments following a crash, a mock press conference and on-camera interviews with review and critique by counselors and peers.
For several days after the Buffalo crash, senior D&E professionals provided on-the-ground crisis counsel, strategy development and messaging at Pinnacle’s Memphis headquarters. Subsequently, D&E played a major continuing role preparing the airline’s executives to present testimony and handle the crush of media inquiries surrounding House and Senate subcommittee hearings and a National Transportation Safety Board special hearing on aviation safety.